m  PULLMAN  STRIKE 


TOWN  OF    PULLVAN— FBONT   VIEW 


TOWN    OF   PULLMAN  — REAR    VIEV 


BY  REV.  WILLIAM  H.  CARWARDINE, 

PASTOR   OF   THE    FIRST  M.    E.    CHURCH,    PULLMAN,    ILL. 


Unity   Library,  'No.jb.  Monthly,  $5.00  a  year.  August,  iSq4. 

Entered  at  the  Postoffice,  Chicago,  as  Second-class  Mail  Matter. 


Charles  H.  Kerr  &  Co.,  Publishers,  175  Monroe  St.,  Chicago. 


THE  PULLMAN  STRIKE 


BY 


WILLIAM  H.  CARWARDINE 

PASTOR  OF  THE   FIRST  M.    E.    CHURCH,    PULLMAN,    ILL. 


'  The  laborer  is  worthy  of  his  hire. 


CHICAGO 

CHARLES  H.  KERR  AND  COMPANY 

1894 


Copyright,  1894, 
By  Charles  H.  Kexr  &  Comfamt 


AFFECTIONATELY  DEDICATED 

TO   MY 

BELOVED  FATHER-IN-LAW 

REV.    JOHN    WILLIAMS 

PASTOR   OF  THE   FIRST  M.   E.   CHURCH,     CRESTON,     ILL. 

WHO  WAS 
FOR  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  HIS   EARLY  LIFE  COfJNECTED  WITH  THE 
DAILY   PRESS   OF   NEW     YORK    CITY,    AND  WHO    DID 
LOYAL  SERVICE  AT  THAT  TIME    IN    AROUS- 
ING PUBLIC   SENTIMENT  TO  THE 
NEEDS    OF    THE    TOIL- 
ING  MASSES 


'^rH«''>.,w- 


INTRODUCTION. 

This  book  is  packed  with  facts.  For  these  facts 
the  author  is  not  responsible.  It  is  true,  his  soul  was 
stirred,  but  cruel  facts  stirred  the  soul  of  even  the 
Son  of  God.  If  sometimes  the  author's  spirit  flames 
with  indignation,  let  it  be  remembered  that  it  is 
against  heartless  tyranny,  and  in  defense  of  long 
silent  and  outraged  innocence. 

He  speaks  with  authority.  He  is  a  resident  of  Pull- 
man, and  is  familiar  with  almost  ever}'  face  and  fire- 
side in  the  town.  Like  his,  Master  he  has  gone  about 
doing  good,  among  the  rich  and  poor  alike.  He 
knows  Pullman  and  his  lieutenants.  He  knows 
Debs  and  his  most  trusted  followers.  He  knows 
what  both  sides  have  done,  when,  and  how,  and 
why,  and  with  what  results.  In  a  sense,  therefore, 
he  knows  more  about  the  whole  conflict  than  either 
Debs  or  Pullman.  Each  knows  his  own  side  only. 
The  author  of  this  volume  knows  both  sides. 

The  book  is  reliable.  The  author  means  to  neither 
minify  nor  magnify.  He  would  be  a  mere  photog- 
rapher Assuredly  he  has  not  fallen  into  the  error 
of  exaggeration.     No  student,  lecturer,   preacher  or 


8  INTRODUCTION 

reformer  need  hesitate  in  using  the  statements  herein 
made.      They  can  all  be  verified  again  and  again. 

With  all  my  heart,  I  bid  this  book  God-speed! 
May  it  be  read  in  a  million  of  homes,  from  the  White 
House  to  the  dug-out,  and  from  the  palaces  of  mil- 
lionaires down  to  the  hovels  of  the  humble  poor. 
May  its  plain,  honest  facts  banish  the  flagrant  misin- 
formation with  which  the  secular  and  even  the  relig- 
ious press  has  been  teeming  for  weeks,  and  may  it 
be  the  mission  of  this  book  to  stir  the  heart  of  this 
whole  nation  until  the  "white  slaves"  of  industrial 
tyranny  be  emancipated  and  receive  the  treatment 
becoming  the  sons  and  daughters   of  the  Most  High. 

John  Merritte  Driver. 
Marion,  Ind.,  July  30th,  1894 


CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  I. 
Introductory 1 1 

CHAPTER  n. 
The  Town  of  Pullman , .      15 

CHAPTER  HI. 
Pullman  and  Debs 27 

CHAPTER  IV. 
History  of  the  Strike 33 

CHAPTER  V. 
Character  and  Incidents  of  the  Strike 38 

CHAPTER  VI. 
Fallacies  in  Pullman's  S  fatements 47 

CHAPTER  VII. 
Cutting  Wages 68 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
Rents,  Water,  Gas,  etc 93 

CHAPTER  IX. 
Shop  Abuses 100 

CHAPTER  X. 
Personal — Lessons — Remedy 118 

Appendix 127 


THE  PULLMAN  STRIKE. 

CHAPTER    I. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

The  Pullman  strike  is  the  greatest  and  most  far- 
reaching  of  any  strike  on  record  in  this  country.  It 
is  the  most  unique  strike  ever  known.  When  we  take 
into  account  the  intelligence  of  the  employees,  al- 
ways the  boast  of  the  Pullman  Company;  the  wide- 
spread advertisement  of  the  town  as  a  "model  town," 
established  as  a  solution  of  the  industrial  problem 
upon  the  basis  of  "mutual  recognition ;"  it  is  no  won- 
der that  the  world  was  amazed,  when,  under  such 
apparently  favorable  conditions,  in  the  midst  of  a 
season  of  great  financial  depression,  the  employees 
laid  down  their  tools,  and,  on  the  i  ith  of  May,  walked 
out  of  the  great  shops  to  face  an  unequal  and  appar- 
ently hopeless  conflict. 

After  seven  weeks  of  patient  waiting,  the  American 
Railway  Union,  having  espoused  the  cause  of  the 
Pullman  employees,  declares  a  boycott  on  the  Pull- 
man Palace  Cars.  This  action  is  repulsed  by  the 
11 


12  THE  PUBLIC  DEMANDS  THE  FACTS 

Railroad  Managers'  Association.  The  conflict  is  trans- 
ferred at  once  to  the  arena  of  public  commerce;  or- 
ganized labor  and  organized  capital  are  pitted  against 
each  other;  stagnation  of  all  business  interests  results; 
the  highways  of  trade  are  blocked ;  the  great  unoffend- 
ing public  is  the  innocent  sufferer,  riots  ensue,  the 
military  are  ordered  out,  the  foundations  of  govern- 
ment are  threatened;  the  strong  arm  of  the  law  is  put 
forth,  the  public  demand  for  peace  is  heard,  and  the 
crisis  reached. 

Now  the  public  mind  reverts  to  the  original  cause. 
What  made  these  intelligent  employees  at  Pullman 
strike.!"  Were  they  rash  and  inconsiderate,  or  were 
they  driven  to  their  course  by  certain  conditions 
over  which  they  had  no  control,  and  which  justified 
them  in  their  action? 

These  and  a  hundred  other  questions  are  coming 
to  me  by  every  mail  from  all  parts  of  our  country. 
Ten  days  after  the  employees  struck,  I  delivered  a 
sermon  from  my  pulpit,  which  created  profound  in- 
terest in  Pullman  and  Chicago,  and  which  has  since 
been  copied  broadcast  in  newspapers  all  over  the 
United  States.  Owing  to  this  fact,  I  am  accosted 
onallsidesfor  information  concerning  the  true  condi- 
tion of  things  in  this  model  town. 

For  two  years  I  have  been  the  pastor  of  the  Pull- 
man M.  E.  Church,  and  closely  related  to  the  moral 
and  social  life  of  the  town.  During  that  time  I  have 
been  a  silent  spectator    of  the  life   and  character  of 


THE  RIGHT  OF  THE  PULPIT  TO  CRITICISE  13 

the  town.  I  have  studied  carefully  and  with  much 
interest  the  Pullman  system.  I  have  had  abundant 
opportunity  to  observe  the  town  from  the  standpoint 
of  a  student  of  the  industrial  problem. 

I  wish  to  be  fair  and  impartial.  I  have  seen  many 
things  to  admire  as  well  as  many  to  condemn.  My 
sympathies  have  gone  out  to  the  striking  employees. 
Never  did  men  have  a  cause  more  just — never  did 
corporation  with  equal  pretenses  grind  men  more  un- 
mercifully. I  contend  that  I  have  a  right  to  publicly 
criticise  a  public  man  or  a  public  institution,  so  long  as 
I  do  not  depart  from  the  path  of  truth  or  make  false 
imputations,  willfully  knowing  them  to  be  such.  No 
one  has  deplored  this  strike  more  than  myself.  I 
wish  that  it  might  have  been  averted.  But  so  long 
as  the  employees  saw  fit  to  take  this  action  I  believe 
that  it  is  the  duty  of  all  concerned  to  look  the  issue 
squarely  in  the  face,  without  equivocation  or  evasion, 
consider  the  matter  in  its  true  light,  and  endeavor  to 
bring  about  a  settlement  of  the  difficulty  as  speedily 
as  possible. 

I  make  no  apology  as  a  clergyman  for  discussing 
this  theme.  As  ministers  of  the  gospel  we  have  a 
right  to  occasionally  turn  from  the  beaten  path  of 
biblical  truth  and  consider  these  great  questions  of 
social,  moral  and  economic  interest.  He  who  denies 
the  right  of  the  clergy  to  discuss  these  matters  of  great 
public  concern  has  either  been  brought  up  under  a 
government  totally  foreign  to  the  free  atmosphere  of 


14  PREACHING  THE  GOSPEL 

American  institutions,  or  else  he  has  failed  utterly  to 
comprehend  the  spirit  of  the  age  in  which  he  lives. 
Sometimes  we  preachers  are  told  to  mind  our  own 
business  and  "preach  the  gospel."  All  right;  I  have 
preached  the  gospel  of  Christ,  and  souls  have  been 
redeemed  to  a  better  life  under  the  preaching  of  that 
gospel.  I  contend  now  that  in  the  discussing  of  this 
theme  I  am  preaching  the  gospel  of  applied  Christian- 
ity— applied  to  humanity — the  gospel  of  mutual 
recognition,  of  co-operation,  of  the  "brotherhood  of 
humanity."  The  relation  existing  between  a  man's 
body  and  his  soul  are  such  that  you  can  make  very  little 
headway  appealing  to  the  soul  of  a  thoroughly  live 
and  healthy  man  if  he  be  starving  for  food.  Christ 
not  only  preached  to  the  multitude,  but  he  gave  them 
to  eat.  And  I  verily  believe  that  if  he  came  to  Chi- 
cago to-day,  as  indicated  by  the  erratic  yet  noble 
Stead,  he  would  apply  the  whip  of  cords  to  the  backs 
of  some  of  us  preachers  for  not  performing  our  full 
share  of  duty  to  "his  poor." 

"Let  Qot  ambition  mock  their  useful  toil, 
Their  homely  joys,  and  destiny  obscure; 
Nor  grandeur  hear  with  a  disdainful  smile 
The  short  and  simple  annals  of  the  poor." 


CHAPTER   II. 

THE  TOWN  OF  PULLMAN. 

"The  Pullman  car  solved  the  problem  of  long, con- 
tinuous railway  journeys,  and  the  town  of  Pullman, 
along  new  lines,  gives  a  hope  of  bettering  the  rela- 
tions of  capital  and  labor.  The  issue  of  this  last  is 
a  question  of  the  future,  butitis  at  least  a  legitimate 
subject  of  speculation,  whether  what  the  car  wrought 
in  one  direction,  with  all  its  attendant  and  lasting 
benefits  to  humanity,  may  not  in  some  sort,  on  a 
broader  scale,  and  with  benefits  to  humanity  even 
more  far-reaching  and  enduring,  be  repeated  in  the 
great  field  where  the  town  of  Pullman  now  stands  as 
the  advance  guard  of  a  new  departure  and  a  new 
idea. 

"In  brief,  the  Pullman  enterprise  is  a  vast  object- 
lesson.  It  has  demonstrated  man's  capacity  to  im- 
prove and  to  appreciate  improvements.  It  has  shown 
that  success  may  result  from  corporate  action  which 
is  alike  free  from  default,  foreclosure  or  wreckage  of 
any  sort.  It  has  illustrated  the  helpful  combination 
of  capital  and  labor,  without  strife  or  stultification, 
upon  lines  of  mutual  recognition." 

The  above  is  taken  from  a  work  entitled  "The 
Story  of  Pullman,"  referred  to  in  another  place  and 
written  in  the  interest  of  Pullman.  In  view  of  the 
above,  it  may  be  well  to  say  a  few  words  concerning 
the  town  of  Pullman  itself.  The  story  as  told  in 
15 


16  IVHERE  El^'ERY  PROSPECT  PLEASES 

1 894 'is  a  far  different  one.  There  is  strife,  mutual 
suspicion  and  discord.  There  are  strikes,  lockouts 
and  the  inevitable  violence,  riots,  arson  and  murder 
resulting  therefrom,  which  certainly  indicates  that 
there  must  be  something  wrong  in  Pullman.  I  be- 
lieve that  the  town  itself  was  established  in  the  hope 
of  bettering  the  condition  of  the  laboring  classes,  but 
it  has  failed  sadly  of  its  original  purpose.  As  seen 
from  the  railway  by  the  passing  tourist,  it  presents  a 
beautiful  picture.  In  fact  it  appears  to  be  a  veritable 
paradise.  Beautiful  trees  and  flowers,  pretty  foun- 
tains, glimpses  here  and  there  of  artistic  sweeps  of 
landscape,  gardens,  rows  of  pretty  little  brick  houses, 
church  in  the  distance,  public  buildings  of  different 
description,  all  present  a  beautiful  picture  to  the 
passing  traveler. 

Mr.  Pullman  and  his  lieutenants  love  to  show  this 
beautiful  picture  to  the  world.  Pullman,  the  town, 
is  Mr.  Pullman's  idol,  and  in  many  respects  he  may 
well  be  proud  of  it,  but  there  is  another  side  to  the 
town  of  Pullman.  Like  the  stage,  there  is  some- 
thing behind  the  scenes,  and  that  which  is  behind  the 
scenes  does  not  harmonize  with  the  effect  produced 
before  the  curtain.  Let  us  take  a  short  tour  around 
the  town.  We  will  enter  the  Arcade.  In  this  build- 
ing is  the  postofBce,  stores  of  different  descriptions, 
the  Opera  House,  offices  of  the  town  agent  and  his 
clerical  force,  and  on  the  second  story,  library  and 
rooms  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  and 


THE  SUbSCRIPTION  LIBRARY  17 

Kindergarten.  Also  one  or  two  rooms  devoted  to  the 
use  of  churches,  one  room  of  which  the  Baptist  church 
occupied  up  to  within  a  few  weeks  ago,  when  under 
the  active  administration  of  the  cioble  pastor,  Rev. 
Fred  Berry,  they  have  succeeded  in  building  a  church 
on  the  outskirts  of  Pullman,  in  Roseland.  Another 
room  is  rented  by  the  Episcopal  church. 

Note  for  a  few  moments  the  library.  It  is  a  gem. 
It  is  one  of  the  most  complete  of  its  kind  in  the 
United  States.  It  is  small  and  cozy,  but  very  conven- 
ient for  those  who  have  the  privilege  of  using  it.  It 
was  the  gift  of  Mr.  Pullman  to  his  town.  The  li- 
brary is  presided  over  by  Mrs.  Charles  B.  Smith, 
librarian,  a  lady  who  is  intimately  related  to  Mr. 
Pullman,  entirely  in  sympathy  with  all  his  ideas  and 
one  who  is  regarded  with  the  highest  estimation  by  the 
people  of  the  entire  town.  As  president  of  the 
Woman's  Relief  Society,  she,  together  with  other 
ladies,  has  endeared  herself  to  the  poor  and  the  suffer- 
ing in  Pullman.  The  library  rooms  are  luxurious 
and  are  regarded  by  all  visitors  as  the  handsomest  in 
this  country.  It  has  8,000  volumes,  covering  every 
practical  department  of  knowledge.  The  whole 
number  of  books  used  in  1893  was  20,900.  I  note  in 
an  enumerated  table,  the  number  taken  from  each 
department,  as  printed  in  the  Pullman  Journal  of 
last  year.  Of  reference  books  there  were  used  5,479; 
of  books  for  juveniles,  2,343;  books  of  fiction,  3,161, 
History,  1,406;  biography,  1,057;  o^    science,  2,245; 


18  l^-'HY  NOT  A  FREE  LIBRARY} 

travels,  1,245,  and  of  poetry  2,073.  Ji^^^ging  from 
the  last,  it  is  evident  that  the  artistic  effect  and  influ- 
ence of  Pullman  upon  the  inhabitants  causes  them  to 
indulge  in  much  poetry. 

While  we  admire  the  library  and  believe  that  it  is 
doing  good  work, still  it  is  not  producing  the  practical 
results  demanded  of  such  an  institution.  The  com- 
plaint of  employees  is  that  they  are  expected  to  pay 
25  cents  a  month  or  three  dollars  a  year  for  the  use 
of  books,  and  one  dollar  per  year  for  every  child. 
This  is  all  right,  but  with  the  immense  wealth 
of  the  Pullman  Company  they  feel  that  they  ought  to 
have  an  absolutely  free  library  and  reading  room. 
The  reading  room  is  an  adjunct  of  the  library,  is  very 
small,  and  very  few  of  the  men,  comparatively  speak- 
ing, use  it.  It  is  too  luxurious  for  the  average  work- 
ing man.  It  has  a  tendency  to  create  a  spirit  of 
caste  in  the  little  town.  I  should  much  prefer  some- 
thing on  the  principle  of  the  Public  Library  in  Chi- 
cago or  any  other  large  city,  and  above  all  an  insti- 
tution similar  to  the  Peter  Cooper  Institute  of 
New  York,  where  everything  is  plain  but  neat  and 
clean  and  where  everything  is  offered  free,  in  the 
way  of  library,  instruction,  lectures,  art  school  and 
scientific  classes. 

I  believe  such  a  building  as  this  would  accomplish 
great  good,  and  I  believe  in  connection  with  an  in- 
stitution of  this  character  there  ought  to  be  a  room 
where  men  may  congregate  and  chat  with  each  other, 


COL.  DU/1NE  DOTY  19 

and  where,  for  the  benefit  of  young  men,  there  should 
be  games  such  as  checkers,  chess,  etc.  Many  a  young 
man  here  would  be  saved  from  the  influence  of  the 
Kensington  saloons.  Pullman  is  a  prohibition  town, 
and  this  is  a  commendable  feature,  but  lying  on  the 
outskirts  of  the  town,  within  a  few  moments'  walk  of 
the  Arcade,  are  to  be  found  thirty  or  thirty-five  saloons. 
Before  we  leave  the  Arcade  we  might  call  on  Col. 
Doty,  whose  office  is  on  the  second  story.  Col.  Duane 
Doty  is  the  editor  of  the  Pullman  Journal,  and  the 
historian  and  statistician  of  the  Pullman  Company. 
He  has  a  profound  admiration  for  the  system  upon 
which  the  town,  is  based.  He  brings  to  bear  his 
time  and  talents  in  the  dissemination  of  literature 
complimentary  to  the  Pullman  Company;  all  friends 
visiting  the  town,  sent  by  Mr.  Pullman,  are  taken  on 
their  tour  of  inspection  by  Mr.  Doty.  Charming  as 
a  conversationalist  and  better  acquainted  with  all 
the  details  of  the  business  than  any  other  man  in 
the  community,  he  mvariably  sends  the  visitor  away 
with  most  delightful  im.pressions  of  the  town.  "A 
town,"  in  a  word,  "from  which  all  that  is  ugly,  dis- 
cordant and  demoralizing  is  eliminated,  and  which 
was  built  as  a  solution  of  the  industrial  problem  based 
upon  the  idea  of  mutual  recognition."  Passing  out 
of  the  Arcade  building,  we  move  east,  along  "Arcade 
Row,"  composed  of  a  block  of  very  pretty  nine  room 
cottages,  at  the  extreme  east  end  of  which  is  the 
home  of  Mayor  Hopkins.     On  our  right  is  a  beau- 


20  THE  "GREEN  STONE  CHURCH" 

tiful  little  park,  tastefully  decorated  with  flowers  and 
shrubbery;  in  the  center  of  which  is  the  band  stand, 
where  the  Pullman  band  on  summer  evenings  dis- 
courses sweet  music,  while  in  the  distance  can  be 
seen  the  Florence  Hotel,  where,  we  are  told  by  the 
Evening  Post,''''T\\Q,  aristocracy  of  Pullman  hold  forth." 
Standing  on  the  corner  of  Arcade  Row,  looking  east, 
is  the  "Green  Stone  Church,"  so  named  on  account 
of  the  color  of  the  stone  out  of  which  the  structure  is 
built.  As  a  piece  of  ecclesiastical  architecture  it  is 
perfection  from  the  outside,  but  for  practical 
church  purposes  it  is  useless,  being  composed  of  one 
large  room,  the  auditorium,  and  three  small  rooms 
at  the  rear.  It  has  no  separate  Sunday  School  room, 
parlors,  class  room  or  any  of  the  modern  conveniences 
now  found  in  churches.  A  little  story  is  told  in  regard 
to  this  church  which  is  interesting.  In  the  early  his- 
tory of  the  town  the  church  stood  idle  because  of  the 
enormous  rent.  The  Methodists,  under  the  pastorate 
of  F.  W.  Warne,  now  in  India,  waited  on  Mr.  Pull- 
man with  the  Rev.  Dr.  Luke  Hitchcock  and  Bishop 
X.  Ninde,  to  rent  the  church.  Their  object  was  to 
get  the  church  at  a  less  rental  than  was  asked  at  that 
time,  which  was  $300.00  a  month.  After  presenting 
all  their  arguments,  Mr.  Pullman  absolutely  refused, 
and  furthermore  said  that  "when  that  church  was  built 
it  was  not  intended  so  much  for  the  moral  and  spir- 
itual welfare  of  the  people  as  it  was  for  the  comple- 
tion of  the  artistic  effect  of  the  scene."  When  Mr,  Pull- 


CHURCHES  AND  RENTS  31 

man  built  the  church,  it  was  his  idea  that  there  should 
be  one  church  in  the  town  and  that  all  should    wor- 
ship there, but  that  was  impossible.  The  Roman  Cath- 
olics received  the  right  by  a  lease  of  ninety-nine  years 
to  build  a  church  across  the    tracks   on  a  large  open 
prairie,  the  property  of  the  Pullman  Company.    The 
Swedish  Lutherans  were  permitted    to  do   the  same. 
The  Green   Stone    Church  was    finally  rented   to  the 
Presbyterians  for  $100.00  per  month;   water,    steam, 
and  gas    extra.       Next  to  the  church    and    a  part  of 
it  is    a  handsome  parsonage,  but   no    minister  has 
ever    been    able    to   live   in    it,    on    account    of  the 
high  rent  of  $65  per  month.      They  have  had  a  varied 
experience    and, are    now    without    a  settled    pastor. 
It  was  in  this  church  that    the    Rev.    Doctor  Oggel, 
then  supplying  the  church,  delivered  a  sermon  eulogis- 
tic   of    Mr.  Pullman's    great    service  to  his  age,    his 
country,    and    his    town,    from     the     text:     "Thou 
hast     made    him    a    little    lower    than     tlie   angels, 
and  hast  crowned  him    with  glory   and  honor;"  con- 
cluding with   a   quotation   from   a    St.  Louis  paper, 
that  Mr.  Pullman  is  worthy  of  the  nomination  to  the 
Presidency  of  the  United    States.      Dr.    Oggel  deliv- 
ered his  last  sermon  on   the  Sunday  after  the  strike, 
in    which    he    declared    to    the    men    that     "a     half 
loaf  was  better  than  no  loaf,"  and  that  in  his  judgment 
they  were  receiving  "two-thirds  of  a  loaf." 

The  M.  E.    church   worships   in    a  large    room  in 
what  is  known  as  the  Casino  building.      It  is  com- 


23  TENEMENT  BLOCKS 

fortable,  seated  with  326  opera  chairs.  In  the  rear 
are  two  small  rooms,  one  of  which  is  used  for  the 
pastor's  study.  For  these  accommodations  we  pay 
the  Company  $300  in  rent,  $60  in  steam,  and  gas 
sufficient  to  bring  the  amount  up  to  $480.00;  to 
this  janitor's  services  may  be  added,  making  the  yearly 
expenditures  over  $500.  The  churches  could  not 
afford  to  pay  these  enormous  rents  if  the  people  of 
Pullman  were  not  generous  in  their  support  of 
them. 

Leaving  the  Green  Stone  Church,  going  eastward, 
we  come  to  the  Market  Hall,  a  building  set  apart  for 
such  stores  as  general  merchandise.  All  the  stores 
in  the  town  are  rented  by  individuals  who  are  sup- 
posed to  be  independent  of  the  Company.  You  are 
not  compelled  to  purchase  at  these  stores. 

As  we  pass  through  the  Market  Hall  we  go  toward 
Fulton  Street.  The  streets  are  named  after  the  great 
inventors,  Fulton,  Stephenson,  Watt,  Morse,  and 
Pullman.  On  Fulton  Street  are  the  great  tenement 
blocks,  lettered  from  A  to  J,  three  stories,  where 
from  300  to  500  persons  live  under  one  roof.  These 
blocks  are  divided  into  tenements  of  two  rooms, 
three  rooms  and  four  rooms  apiece.  These  tenements 
are  mostly  occupied  by  foreigners.  They  are  com- 
paratively clean,  having  air  and  light;  but  abundance 
•  of  water  they  have  not,  there  being  but  one  faucet 
for  each  group  of  five  families,  and  in  some  cases  the 
water  is  in  the  same  apartment    devoted  to  the  clos- 


KEEPING  BOARDERS  IN  TIVO  ROOMS  23 

ets.  There  are  no  yards  except  a  great  barren  space 
in  common. 

Away  toward  the  south  of  town  is  the  eyesore  of 
the  place,  known  as  the  brick  yards,  four  rows  of 
Httle  wooden  shanties.  They  are  sixteen  by  twenty 
feet,  ceiling  seven  feet,  a  sitting  room  and  two  bed- 
rooms, and  a  kitchen  in  a  lean-to.  These  cabins  could 
be  built  easily  for  $100.00  apiece,  and  they  rent 
for  $S.oo  per  month  or  $96.00  a  year.  The  average 
population  of  Pullman  is  about  1 2, 000.  It  has  reached 
as  high  as  14,000.  The  shops  are  in  the  center  of 
the  town,  a  large  part  of  the  resident  portion  extend- 
ing north  of  the  shops.  At  this  end  cf  town  are  the 
Rolling  Mills,  Freight  Shops  and  the  Foundry.  The 
whole  impression  of  the  town,  outside  of  the  central 
part,  is  that  it  is  crowded  and  unwholesome.  The 
houses  are  all  built  in  solid  brick  rows.  The  monotony 
and  regularity  of  the  buildings  give  one  the  im.pres- 
sion  that  he  is  living  in  soldiers'  barracks.  There 
is  no  such  thing  as  a  home  in  the  American  sense 
of  the  word;  owing  to  the  high  rents  hundreds  of  fam- 
ilies having  two  or  three  room  apartments,  keep 
boarders  and  roomers,  striving  in  this  way  to  add  to 
the  earnings  of  the  head  of  the  family,  to  make  both 
ends  meet. 

During  the  past  winter  it  took  the  earnings  of  both 
host  and  boarder  to  pay  the  rent  and  keep  above  the 
plain  of  destitution.  In  no  community  in  the  world, 
probably,  is  there  such  a  small  proportion  of    fam- 


24  FAMILY  PRIVACY  u„r-^:y^iBLE 

ilies  which  really  live  in  family  privacy.  In  the  north 
end  of  town  there  are  rows  of  houses  where  there  is 
no  front  door  for  the  family  living  upstairs.  They 
are  required  to  pass  through  the  alley  into  the  yard, 
up  a  back  stair  to  reach  their  homes.  In  some  parts 
of  the  town  there  are  houses  where,  if  you  desire  to 
reach  the  family  living  upstairs,  you  are  compelled, 
night  or  day,  to  pass  through  the  apartments  of  the 
family  on  the  lower  floor.  This  destroys  the  sanctity 
of  the  home  and  is  not  conducive  to  the  morality  of 
the  town.  Indeed,  as  I  know  to  be  a  fact,  the  morals 
of  Pullman  are  not  up  to  the  standard  that  they 
might  be. 

An  unpleasant  feature  of  the  town  is  that  you  are 
made  to  feel  at  every  turn  the  presence  of  the  corpo- 
ration. As  Peter  Quinon,  of  the  Pittsburg  Times,  well 
says:  "The  corporation  is  everything  and  everywhere. 
The  corporation  trims  your  lawn  and  attends  to  your 
trees;  the  corporation  sweeps  your  street,  and  sends 
a  man  around  to  pick  up  every  cigar  stump,  every 
bit  of  paper,  every  straw  or  leaf;  the  corporation 
puts  two  barrels  in  your  back  yard,  one  for  ashes  and 
one  for  refuse  of  the  kitchen;  the  corporation  has 
the  ashes  and  refuse  hauled  away;  the  corporation 
provides  you  new  barrels  when  the  others  are  worn 
out;  the  corporation  does  practically  everything  but 
sweep  your  room  and  make  your  bed,  and  the  cor- 
poration expects  you  to  enjoy  it  and  hold  your 
tongue."  This  is  a  corporation  made   and  a  corpora- 


TINSEL  AhlD  SHOIV  26 

tlon  governed  town,  and  is  utterly  un-American  in  its 
tendencies. 

The  great  trouble  with  this  whole  Pullman  system 
is  that  it  is  not  what  it  pretends  to  be.  No  one  can 
but  admire  many  of  the  beautiful  features  of  this 
town.  To  the  casual  visitor  it  is  a  veritable  para- 
dise— to  the  passing  student  of  the  industrial  prob- 
lem, it  has  a  fascinating  appearance;  but  like  the 
play,  there  is  a  good  deal  of  tinsel  and  show  about 
it.  It  is  a  sort  of  hollow  mockery,  sham,  an  institu- 
tion girdled  with  red  tape,  and  as  a  solution  of  the 
labor  problem  a  very  unsatisfactory  one.  The  great 
trouble  with  the  town,  viewed  from  the  standpoint 
of  an  industrial  experiment,  is  that  while  it  possesses 
some  excellent  features,  still  its  deficiencies  over- 
balance all  its  beauties.  It  belongs  to  the  map  of 
Europe.  It  is  a  civilized  reHc  of  European  serfdom. 
We  all  enjoy  living  here  because  there  is  an  equality 
of  interest,  and  we  have  a  common  enemy,  the  Com- 
pany, but  our  daily  prayer  is,  "Lord,  keep  us  from 
dying  here."  An  eminent  writer  in  Harper's  Monthly, 
in  1884,  on  "Pullman,"  declared  that  at  that  time, 
ten  years  ago,  its  great  faults  were:  "Bad  adminis- 
tration in  respect  to  the  employment,  retention  and 
promotion  of  employees.  Change  is  constant  in  men 
and  officers,  and  each  new  superior  appears  to  have 
his  own  friends,  whom  he  appoints  to  desirable  posi- 
tions. Favoritism  and  nepotism  exist;  natural 
dissatisfaction,  a  powerful  prevalence  of  petty  '"eal- 


26  THE  LOGICAL  OUTCOME 

ousies,  discouragements  of  superior  excellence,  fre- 
quent change  of  residents,  and  an  all-pervading  feel- 
ing of  insecurity."  The  writer  further  declares  that 
it  is  not  an  American  idea.  It  is  a  species  of  benev- 
olent feudalism,  and  as  to  its  morals,  the  writer  says: 
"The  prevailing  tendency  at  that  day  was,  'The  de- 
sire to  beat  the  company.'" 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  town  has  not  changed. 
What  a  commentary  on  the  present  state  of  affairs! 
To-day  we  behold  the  lamentable  and  logical  out- 
come of  the  whole  system.  If  this  town  was  estab- 
lished with  the  hope  of  bettering  the  relations  of  Cap- 
ital and  Labor,  then  I  believe  it  has  partially  failed 
in  its  mission,  and  will  never  succeed  until  some  of 
its  conditions  are  changed. 


CHAPTER  III. 

PULLMAN  AND  DEBS. 

Suffer  a  word  regarding  Mr.  Pullman  himself,  I 
would  like  to  pay  my  respects  to  him.  I  have  noth- 
ing to  say  of  him  that  savors  of  fulsome  eulogy  or 
nauseating  praise.  When  I  consider  him  as  a  man, 
and  hold  him  up  to  the  youth  of  our  land  as  an  ex- 
ample, I  find  many  things  worthy  of  consideration. 
All  honor  to  Mr.  Pullman  for  the  magnificent  business 
sagacity  in  the  development  of  the  Pullman  palace 
car  idea.  Few  men  are  capable  of  bringing  to  a'suc- 
cessful  issue  such  marvelous  results.  It  is  no  small 
thing  fcr  one  man  to  be  able  to  create  a  vast  pro- 
ductive industry,  which  is  one  of  the  century's  civiliz- 
ing strides,  and  which,  from  a  small  beginning,  has 
reached  a  market  value  of  $50,000,000.  It  takes 
brain  to  do  that  sort  of  thing,  and  Mr.  Pullman  as  a 
financier  is  one  of  the  brainiest  men  of  his  day. 

In  this  age  of  rapidly  increasing  fortunes,  when 
men  become  rich  in  a  day  by  speculation,  weaving  a 
fabric  of  success  upon  the  ruin  of  others,  I  am.  willing 
to  accord  honor  to  a  man  who  has  become  rich  as 
the  result  of  the  establishment  of  a  great  manufactur- 
ing industry.  As  a  man  of  industry,  possessed  of  a 
27 


28  MR.  PULLMAN  AS  A  PHILANTHROPIST 

great  idea  and  tenacioulsy  clinging  to  that  idea  until 
he  has  wrought  it  out  to  completion,  rising  as  a  poor 
boy  in  an  obscure  village,  to  a  great  position  as  a 
business  man,  possessed  no  doubt  with  a  desire  to 
better  his  fellow-man,  retaining  a  personal  charac- 
ter which,  we  have  every  reason  to  believe,  is  honest 
and  pure,  he  is  an  example  in  these  things  that  we 
can  hold  up  before  the  youth  of  our  land,  and  bid 
them  imitate. 

But  when  Mr.  Pullman,  as  a  public  man,  stands  be- 
fore the  world  and  demands  of  us  that  we  regard  him 
as  a  benefactor  to  his  race,  as  a  true  philanthropist, 
as  one  who  respects  his  fellow-men,  who  regards  his 
employees  with  the  love  of  a  father  for  his  children, 
and  would  have  us  associate  him  with  such  men  as 
George  Peabody,  Peter  Cooper  and  George  W.  Childs, 
I  confess  as  a  clergyman,  delivering  this  message  un- 
der the  shadow  of  these  deserted  shops,  I  fail  utterly 
to  see  the  point.  The  facts  are  not  in  harmony  with 
the  requirements  demanded. 

No  man  craves  Mr.  Pullman's  position  before  the 
American  people  to-day.  He  stands  in  an  unenviable 
light  before  the  world,  an  example  to  others  of  his 
kind  to  beware  lest  they  make  the  same  sad  mistake. 
The  very  qualities  that  made  him  successful  in  life, 
have,  untempered  with  nobler  elements,  placed  him  in 
his  present  predicament  before  the  American  public. 
Determination  and  resolution  have  turned  into  arro- 
gance and  obstinacy.     The  same  disposition  that  has 


"NOTHING  TO  /1RBITRATE"  29 

kept  him  aloof  in  all  these  months  and  years  of  the 
past  from  the  active  life  of  his  town  and  estranged 
him  from  the  heart  of  his  employees,  is  indicated  in  the 
cold  and  arrogant  language  of  his  ultimatum  when 
appealed  to  by  President  and  Mayor  and  public  in 
general — "Nothing  to  arbitrate."  What  a  golden 
opportunity  this  gentleman  has  had  in  the  past  years 
of  his  life  to  immortalize  himself  in  the  hearts  of  his 
countrymen,  to  work  out  some  problem  in  the  solu- 
tion of  the  industrial  question,  to  advance  the  true 
interest  of  his  city  and  his  country,  and  yet  how  ut- 
terly has  he  failed! 

As  all  the  facts  come  to  light,  it  is  plain  that  Mr. 
Pullman  could  have  prevented  the  great  strike,  with 
its  attendant  consequences,  without  sacrificing  either 
his  dignity  or  his  money.  Appealed  to  by  the  city, 
state,  and  federal  government,  while  thousands  of 
dollars'  worth  of  property  was  being  destroyed,  and  the 
trade  of  half  the  country  was  paralyzed,  human  lives 
were  being  sacrificed,  and  bloody  riot  hung  like  a  pall 
over  the  city  and  country,  nevertheless  this  gentle- 
man, having  fled  from  the  scene  of  action,  in  his  se- 
cure and  comfortable  retreat  by  the  seashore,  abso- 
lutely refused  to  make  even  a  formal  concession. 

The  odium  of  his  position  will  never  leave  Mr. 
Pullman.  So  utterly  wrong  was  his  attitude  that  it 
is  no  wonder  that  he  has  reaped  the  censure  and  uni- 
versal condemnation  of  the  press  and  public  opinion 
of  the  country.      He  can  never  recover   from    the 


30  ^LDERMy4N  MC  GILLEN'S  CRITICISM 

moral  effects  of  his  untenable  and  unpatriotic  action. 
That  the  leader  may  thoroughly  understand  this 
matter  I  quote  from  the  Ne.w  York  World  of  July 
14th,  1894: 

"On  Monday  a  committee  of  Mr.  Pullman's  working 
men,  accompanied  by  members  of  the  city  council, 
and  with  the  approval  of  Mayor  Hopkins,  waited 
upon  his  representative  and  offered  to  submit  the 
question  of  whether  or  not  there  was  anything  to  ar- 
bitrate to  a  committee  composed  of  two  members 
chosen  by  himself  (Mr.  Pullman),  two  selected  by  the 
circuit  judges  of  Cook  County,  and  one  to  be  chosen 
by  these  four.  Laboring  men  were  to  have  no  rep- 
resentative on  the  committee,  yet  they  pledged  them- 
selves to  abide  by  its  decision.  This  offer,  which  was 
practically  a  surrender  b}'  the  men,  was  perempto- 
rily rejected  by  Mr.  Pullman's  telegraphic  order  on 
the  ground  that  *he  will  not  permit  outsiders  to  run 
his  business. ' 

"Alderman  McGillen's  criticism  upon  this  arrogant 
and  unpatriotic  attitude  is  perfectly  sound.  He  re- 
minds Mr.  Pullman  that  the  Company  and  other  cor- 
porations of  the  land  are  quasi-public  corporations 
which  have  enjoyed  public  benefits  from  the  com- 
munity. He  points  out  that  the  principal  asset  of 
the  Pullman  Company  is  its  list  of  patents,  and  that 
that  asset  has  been  conferred  by  the  nation.  He 
argues  logically  that  a  corporation  enjoying  millions 
as  the  fruit  of  such  public  benefit  owes  something  to 
the  public,  especially  where  the  preservation  of  peace 
is  involved." 

As  the  champion  of  labor,  standing  in  direct  con- 
trast to  Mr.  Pullman,  is  Mr.  Eugene  V.  Debs,  Pres- 
ident of  the  American  Railway  Union.  Mr,  Debs  is 
an  American  of  French   parentage,  thirty-nine  years 


ESTIMATE  OF  EUGENE  V.  DEBS  31 

of  age,  born  in  Terre  Haute,  Indiana.  He  is  a  man 
of  great  executive  ability  and  a  wonderful  organizer. 
He  possesses  a  rare  gift  of  oratory,  good  voice  and 
presence,  magnetic  and  earnest.  Educated  in  the 
public  schools  of  Terre  Haute,  he  has  ever  retained 
his  love  of  study  and  is  a  great  reader.  When  six- 
teen years  old,  he  began  life  as  a  painter  in  the  Van- 
dalia  Railroad  shops.  Later  he  was  fireman  upon 
the  same  road.  Entering  public  life,  he  was  elected 
to  the  office  of  city  clerk  of  Terre  Haute,  and  later 
served  two  terms  as  member  of  the  state  legislature. 
For  fourteen  consecutive  years  he  filled  the  office  of 
grand  secretary  and  treasurer  of  the  Brotherhood  of 
Locomotive  Firemen.  Always  an  earnest  advocate 
of  a  federation  of  railway  men,  he  conceived  the  idea 
of  the  American  Railway  Union,  which  came  into 
existence  in  this  city,  June  20th,  1893.  I  have  heard 
Mr.  Debs  speak  several  times,  have  conversed  with 
him,  watched  him  preside  over  the  deliberations  of 
the  late  convention  of  the  A.  R.  U.  I  believe  he  is 
thoroughly  sincere  in  the  cause  he  advocates,  a  born 
leader,  deliberate  and  self-possessed,  somewhat  of  an 
enthusiast,  a  man  of  more  than  ordinary  ability. 
I  make  no  apology  for  his  attitude  in  the  matter  of 
the  "boycott, "except  that  he  was  forced  by  the  logic  of 
his  position  into  his  fight  with  the  Railroad  Managers. 
Mr.  Debs  needs  no  word  from  me.  He  is  fully  capa- 
ble of  taking  care  of  himself.  Mistaken  he  may  have 
been  as  to  his  methods,  but  sincere  he  is  as  to  the 


32  THE  My^N  FOR  THE  HOUR 

cause  of  labor.  Mr.  Pullman  was  obstinate,  Mr. 
Debs  determined.  I  know  that  Debs  has  always 
counseled  moderation,  and  positively  demanded  of 
his  followers  to  commit  no  violence.  Had  all  the 
strikers  been  of  like  mind,  and  had  the  mob  ele- 
ments, the  rabble,  and  cheap  foreign  labor  imported 
to  this  country  by  such  gentlemen  as  the  Railroad 
Managers,  not  taken  advantage  of  the  situation  to 
commit  violence,  the  condition  of  things  would  have 
been  different.  Until  the  American  people  will  rec- 
ognize the  true  merits  of  the  laboring  man's  position 
and  demands,  until  corporations  shall  cease  to  be 
tyrannical  and  millionaires  arrogant,  until  there  shall 
be  more  of  the  love  of  God  and  love  for  fellow-man  in 
the  hearts  of  rich  and  poor  alike,  then,  and  not  till 
then,  will  society  be  rid  of  such  men  as  Pullman  and 
the  mission  of  such  as  Mr.  Debs  will  cease. 

After  the  smoke  of  battle  shall  have  rolled  away,  and 
the  public  mind  regains  its  equanimity,  I  believe  the 
calm  verdict  of  the  American  people  concerning  this 
man  will  be  very  different  from  that  engendered  by  a 
rabid  and  capitalistic  press. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

HISTORY  OF  THE  STRIKE. 

Let  US  review  briefly  the  history  of  the  strike. 
From  August,  1892,  to  August,  1893,  was  a  season 
of  unwonted  prosperity  and  activity  in  the  Pullman 
shops.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  four  hundred  new  Pull- 
man cars  were  added  to  the  service.  During  the 
winter  of  1893  the  magnificent  train  of  Pullman  cars 
exhibited  at  the  World's  Fair  was  built.  Work  was 
abundant,  wages  fair,  and  the  force  of  employees  in 
creased  to  between  five  and  six  thousand,  Then  came 
the  reaction  and  depression  of  trade.  The  force  was 
gradually  reduced  until  late  in  the  summer  not  over 
900  men  were  employed.  About  November  of  1893, 
Mr.  Pullman  began  to  secure  contracts  for  new  work, 
and  the  cars  which  had  been  out  on  the  road  in  the 
World's  Fair  traffic  were  rapidly  brought  into  the 
shops  for  repairs.  The  force  was  enlarged  until,  dur- 
ing the  winter,  from  three  to  four  thousand  employees 
were  on  the  pay  roll.  Then  commenced  the  cutting 
of  wages,  and  consequent  abuse  on  the  part  of  the 
local  administration  complained  of  so  bitterly  by  the 
men.  Mutterings  of  dissatisfaction,  discontent  and 
continual  resentings  of  petty  abuses  were  heard  on  all 
33 


34  PETITION  OF  THE  MEN 

sides  during  the  long  and  bitter  winter.  "There  will 
be  trouble  in  the  spring,"  was  an  expression  which  I 
heard  on  all  sides.  Destitution  prevailed  to  a  great 
extent.  Want  and  suffering  was  no  uncommon  pic- 
ture. As  a  pastor  I  came  in  contact  directly  with 
much  suffering.  Repeated  cutting  of  the  wages  with 
no  corresponding  reduction  of  rent  exasperated  the 
employees.  1  was  aware  that  the  men  were  being 
organized  into  local  unions.  Hearing  of  the  success 
of  the  American  Railway  Union,  and  casting  about  for 
some  one  to  champion  their  cause,  these  unions  ap- 
pealed to  Messrs,  Debs  and  Howard  of  the  American 
Railway  Union. 

Meetings  were  held  at  Kensington.  Messrs.  Debs 
and  Howard  repeatedly  counseled  the  men  not  to 
strike,  but  to  wait  until  the  American  Railway  Union 
had  acquired  strength,  and  agreed  in  due  season  to 
assist  the  men  in  their  effort  to  obtain  redress  from 
their  wrongs.  At  this  juncture  a  committee  waited 
on  Manager  Middleton.  Meeting  with  no  favorable 
response,  they  appointed  a  committee  and  waited  on 
Vice-President  Wickes  at  the  city  offices.  Mr.  Wickes 
received  the  committee  very  kindly,  listened  to  their 
grievances  and  promised  that  Mr.  Pullman  would  give 
them  a  final  answer  the  following  week.  On  the  day 
appointed,  the  committee  again  appeared  at  the  city 
office,  where  Mr.  Pullman  delivered  to  them  his  first 
statement,  with  which  the  public  is  familiar.  In  that 
statement  he  refused  to  accede  to  the  demand  of  the 


MR.  PULLMAN'S  ANSIVER  35 

employees  for  a  restoration  of  the  scale  of  wages  for 
1893,  on  the  ground  that  he  had  taken  contracts  for 
new  work  at  a  loss.  As  proof  thereof  he  agreed  to 
permit  an  inspection  of  his  books.  He  stated  further 
that  he  could  not  reduce  the  rents  of  his  houses.  He 
agreed  that  none  of  the  committee  waiting  on  him 
should  be  discharged,  and  also  stated  that  their  griev- 
ances should  be  investigated  So  far,  so  good.  But 
the  employees  were  disappointed  and  chagrined.  I 
well  remember  that  we  who  were  residents  of  the 
town,  not  in  the  employ  of  the  company,  and  anxious 
to  see  the  threatened  strike  averted,  breathed  easier 
that  night,  but  still  were  apprehensive.  Anxiously 
we  awaited  the  morrow.  What  caused  the  disap- 
pointment and  chagrin  of  the  employees?  It  was 
this.  Mr.  Pullman  had  given  out  that  he  had  taken 
contracts  for  new  work  at  a  loss,  because  out  of  love 
for  his  employees  he  desired  to  keep  the  shops  open. 
Unfortunately  the  men  had  never  seen  any  evidences 
of  paternal  love  on  the  part  of  Mr  Pullman  in  his 
previous  dealings  with  them,  and  they  could  not  dis- 
abuse their  minds  of  the  thought  that  perhaps  he  was 
keeping  the  shops  open,  and  taking  work  at  a  loss  in 
order  to  get  his  returns  in  rent.  Also  they  felt  that 
his  refusal  to  reduce  their  rents  was  unjust.  They 
were  suspicious  and  in  no  condition  to  be  trifled 
with.  I  am  sure  Mr.  Pullman  had  no  idea  of  the  true 
state  of  affairs  and  did  not  fully  realize  how  unjustly 
his  employees  had   been  dealt   with,  and  the   magni- 


36  DISCHARGE  OF  THE  GRIEVANCE  COMMITTEE 

tude  of  the  petty  annoyances  to  which  they  had  been 
subjected. 

On  the  morrow,  three  men  who  were  members  of 
the  committee  were  "laid  off."  While  it  was  no  un- 
common thing  in  the  shops  for  men  to  be  "laid  off," 
still  it  had  come  to  be  looked  upon  as  amounting  in 
many  cases  to  a  virtual  discharge. 

Cases  have  been  cited  to  me  of  employees,  who, 
having  incurred  the  displeasure  of  those  in  authority, 
were  "laid  off,"  and  returning  again  and  again  for 
work  found  that  they  were  really  discharged.  What 
made  the  matter  worse  in  this  case  was  that  the  men 
laid  off  discovered  that  it  was  the  direct  action  of  the 
acting  superintendent's  retaliations  upon  them  for 
complaints  uttered  by  them  against  him  the  day  pre- 
vious at  the  city  meeting.  The  discharge  of  these 
men  was  resented  by  the  whole  committee  as  a  vio- 
lation of  Mr.  Pullman's  agreement  with  them. 

Furthermore, the  grievances  were  investigated  dur- 
ing the  day,  but  were  investigated  on  an  ex  parte  basis. 
The  committee  of  investigation  was  composed,  among 
others,  of  Vice-President  Wickes,  General  Manager 
Brown,  Manager  Middleton,  Chief  Accountant 
Wilde,  Mr.  Campbell  of  the  Repair  department 
and  Mr.  Russell,  leading  counsel  for  the  company. 
No  one  appeared  as  a  committee  of  defense  for  the 
men,  to  see  that  their  side  was  duly  represented. 
The  grievances  were  made  light  of  and  treated  as 
trivial  and  inconsequential.  Three  men  stated  to  me 


HO  IV  THE  STRIKE  BEGAN  37 

personally  that  as  they  each  came  out  of  the  Man- 
ager's ofBce  they  respectively  felt,  to  use  their  own 
language,  like  a  "set    of  fools." 

In  this  condition  of  things,  the  employees  met  that 
night  (Thursday)  in  a  secret  all-night  session  com- 
posed of  about  forty-six  men  representing  the  different 
local  unions.  They  voted  unanimously,  in  view  of 
the  unsatisfactory  treatment  they  had  received  at  the 
hands  of  the  Company,  to  strike  the  following  Sat- 
urday. It  seems  that  in  their  midst  was  a  spy;  their 
deliberations  and  decision  reached  the  ears  of  the 
company  early  Friday  morning.  They  went  to  work 
at  7  A.  M.  Abut  9  A.  m.  ,  intelligence  was  conveyed 
to  the  leaders  that  their  action  was  known  to  the 
company  and  that  the  company  had  decided  to  lock 
up  the  shops  at  the  noon  hour.  It  is  claimed  by  the 
men  (whether  true  or  not  I  do  not  know)  that  a 
telegram  from  the  city  to  lock  up,  was  intercepted  by 
an  operator  in  sympathy  with  the  employees  and 
thus  the  word  was  given  to  them.  Rather  than  have 
a  "lock-out"  the  men  passed  the  word  from  one  to  an- 
other to  "walk  out,"  which  they  did  orderly  and  delib- 
erately. About  six  hundred  remained  until  the  noon 
hour,  a  few  returned  until  the  evening,  when  notices 
were  posted  on  the  shop  gates  to  the  effect  that  the 
shops  would  be  closed  indefinitely  .and  the  works 
closed  down.      Thus  began  the  great  Pullman  strike. 


CHAPTER  V. 

CHARACTER  AND  INCIDENTS  OF  THE  STRIKE. 

From  the  nth  of  May,  1894,  until  the  present 
writing  (July  23rd,  1894)  the  Pullman  strike  has  been 
a  remarkable  exhibition  of  orderliness  and  correct 
deportment.  It  has  been  a  "model  strike"  so  far  as 
Pullman  is  concerned.  Up  to  the  evening  of  July 
5th,  in  the  seventh  week  of  the  strike,  not  the  slight- 
est unusual  infringement  of  law  had  taken  place.  The 
universal  comment  was  complimentary  to  the  de- 
corun>'of  the  strikers.  For  seven  weeks  the  town 
was  quieter  than  at  any  other  time  in  its  history, 
less  drinking,  less  roystering,  less  noise,  not  even  an 
occasional  fisticuffs  encounter  to  enliven  the  monot- 
ony of  events.  Even  the  patrol  forgot  to  tear  madly 
through  our  streets  as  of  old. 

No  wonder,  for  the  strike  leaders  gave  out  repeat- 
edly at  their  nightly  meetings  that  order  would  be 
positively  enforced,  and  warning  was  given  to  keep 
clear  of  the  saloons  in  Kensington  and  Roseland.  So 
determined  were  the  men  that  the  property  of  the 
Company  should  not  be  molested  that  they  offered  to 
place  a  cordon  of  men  around  the  shops  to  protect 
them.  On  the  evening  of  the  5th  of  July,  when  the 
B8 


MURDER  BY  A  MARSH/1L  39 

"Boycott"  of  the  American  Railway  Union  against  the 
Pullman  cars  was  at  its  height,  the  Illinois  Central 
railway  having  decided  to  run  the  mail  train  known 
as  the  "Diamond  Special,"  some  difficulty  occurred 
at  the  Kensington  depot,  which  resulted  in  the  stop- 
ping of  the  train.  Later  in  the  evening  (about  mid- 
night) a  mob  of  hoodlums  and  fellows  of  the  "baser 
sort"  arriving  from  South  Chicago,  set  fire  to  a  num- 
ber of  Illinois  Central  freight  cars  about  a  mile  north 
of  Pullman.  The  next  morning  a  mob  of  the  same 
character  gathered  at  Kensington,  marched  past 
Pullman  on  the  railroad  track  and  overturned  box 
cars.  A  United  States  deputy  by  the  name  of  Stark 
fired  wildly  into  the  crowd.  William  Anolyn,  an  in- 
nocent spectator  about  250  feet  from  the  scene,  was 
shot.  Falling  upon  his  face,  he  endeavored  to  rise, 
when  Stark,  according  to  the  deposition  of  eye  wit- 
nesses, advanced  and  deliberately  fired  a  shot  into 
the  back  of  the  prostrate  man.  Two  days  thereafter 
Anolyn  died,  as  the  result  of  the  brutal  deed.  The 
deputy  is  still  at  large. 

Infuriated  by  this  deed,  the  mob  endeavored  to  lay 
hands  on  the  deputy  marshal,  but  he  was  saved  by 
the  interposition  of  the  police.  Great  excitement 
prevailed.  Threatenings  of  every  description  filled 
the  air;  rumors  of  various  kinds  floated  all  day 
through  the  town.  In  the  afternoon  more  cars  near 
Burnside  were  set  on  fire.  In  the  evening  the  militia 
arrived  in  Pullman  and  have  remained  to  date.     The 


40  BAIL  Y  PLATFORM  MEETINGS 

presence  of  the  militia  was  salutary  at  the  time,  but 
their  long  continued  presence  and  the  martial  law  to 
which  the  town  has  been  subjected,  I  believe,  has 
had  a  demoralizing  effect  upon  the  community.  With 
all  due  respect  to  the  noble  boys  in  blue,  I  yet  be- 
lieve that  order  could  have  been  sustained  by  the  local 
authorities,  and  the  moral  conservatism  of  the  best 
elements  among  the  strikers  and  citizens. 

An  interesting  feature  of  the  strike  has  been  the 
regular  daily  public  meeting.  For  the  first  two  weeks 
these  public  gatherings  were  held  afternoon  and 
evening.  The  afternoon  meetings  were  dispensed 
with,  the  meetings  confined  to  the  evening.  The 
proprietors  of  the  Turner  Hall,  capable  of  accommo- 
dating an  audience  of  800  to  1,000  persons,  generously 
donated  the  use  of  the  room  free  of  charge.  As  the 
weather  became  warmer  the  meetings  were  held  in 
the  open  air,  on  an  adjoining  lot,  a  rude  platform 
having  been  improvised  out  of  some  old  dry  goods 
boxes.  Here,  night  after  night,  immense  audiences 
have  gathered  to  listen  to  addresses  from  speakers 
good,  bad  and  indifferent.  It  was  an  open  platform, 
free  for  all,  and  many  splendid  addresses  have  been 
delivered  to  the  assembled  strikers.  All  classes  of 
speakers  were  allowed  to  address  the  multitude, 
among  them  several  clergymen.  The  chairman,  Mr. 
Heathcote,  endeavored  as  far  as  possible  to  curb  the 
utterances  of  those  who  became  too  radical  in  their 
fiery  denunciation  of  the  wrongs   perpetrated  upon 


tVORK  Or  THE  RELIEF  COMMITTEE  41 

the  laborer  by  grinding  corporations  and  monopolistic 
combinations  of  wealth. 

Early  in  the  strike,  the  conduct  of  affairs  was 
vested  in  a  committee  known  as  the  Central  Strike 
Committee,  composed  of  members  of  each  of  the 
local  unions.  Mr  Heathcote  is  the  chairman  of  the 
committee,  Mr  R,  W.  Brown  Vice-President,  and  Mr. 
John  Berry,  Secretary.  As  chairman  of  this  com- 
mittee and  as  the  representative  spokesman  of  the 
strikers,  it  is  no  more  than  fair  to  bespeak  the  high- 
est praise  for  Mr.  Heathcote,  for  the  calm  and  care 
ful  manner  in  which  he  has  performed  the  onerous 
duties  of  his  office.  He  and  his  associates  have  all 
earned  the  good  will  of  the  general  public  of  this  and 
the  surrounding  community,  in  endeavoring  to  pre- 
serve order  and  decorum  in  the  ranks  of  their  fol- 
lowers. 

By  far  the  most  important  feature  of  the  strike  has 
been  that  of  the  Relief  Committee,  organized  imme- 
diately after  the  strike  commenced.  It  has  been  in 
active  service  ever  since,  and  is  the  center  of  attrac- 
tion to  the  vast  army  of  strikers  and  their  families. 
Of  this  committee  Mr.  Frank  Pollans  is  the  obliging 
and  effective  chairman  ;Mr.  J.  J.  Maguire  the  thoroughly 
competent  assistant;  Miss  May  Woods  has  proved 
herself  to  be  an  untiring  and  accomplished  secretary, 
and  Mr.  David  V.  Gladman,  the  trusted  and  efficient 
treasurer.  Associated  with  these  friends  has  been  a 
well  equipped  and  devoted  corps  of  workers  of  every 


42  DONORS  TO  THE  RELIEF  FUND 

description,  whose  energies  have  been  taxed  to  their 
utmost  to  meet  the  demands  of  their  hungry  and 
necessitous  fellows. 

When  the  committee  was  organized,  a  call  was 
sent  forth  for  food  and  money.  The  firm  of  Secord 
and  Hopkins  of  Kensington,  of  which  Mayor  Hopkins 
is  a  partner,  was  the  first  to  respond  with  the  mag- 
nificent gift  of  25,000  pounds  of  fiour,  25,000  pounds 
of  meat,  and  the  use  for  the  benefit  of  the  strikers  of 
a  room  above  their  store  free  of  rent  for  the  commit- 
tee on  care  of  the  sick  so  long  as  the  strike  lasted. 
At  the  same  time  a  committee  of  ladies  interested  in 
the  cause  of  labor,  led  on  by  Mrs.  Fanny  Clarke 
Kavanagh  and  Mrs.  Dr.  Charles  D.  Bradley  of  Chi- 
cago, opened  a  store  donated  by  the  proprietors  of 
the  Chicago  Daily  News,  as  the  city  headquarters 
for  the  Pullman  Strikers'  Relief  Fund. 

From  that  day  to  this,  from  Chicago  and  all  the 
country,  have  come  daily  contributions  of  relief  in 
cash  and  provisions.  The  response  of  the  public  to 
this  fund  has  been  remarkable,  and  has  indicated 
the  widespread  practical  sympathy  aroused  through 
the  country  on  behalf  of  the  suffering  employees. 
Among  the  cash  contributions  will  be  found  amounts 
from  twenty-five  cents  to  a  thousand  dollars  Among 
the  larger  cash  contributions  may  be  noted:  Typo- 
graphical Union  No  16,  $1,000;  the  A,  A.  of  I.  &  S. 
Workers,  Lakeside  Lodge  No.  9,  $686;  Painters 
and    Decorators  Union  No.  147,  $500;    Carpenters' 


DONORS  TO  THE  RELIEF  FUND  43 

Union  No.  23,  100;  Carpenter's  Union  No.  r,  $100; 
Thirty-fourth  Ward  Republican  Club,$ioi ;  the  people 
of  Hammond,  Indiana,  $500;  Carpenters'  Union  of 
Englewood,  $100;  United  Turner  Societies  of  Pull- 
man, Kensington,  and  Roseland,  $400;  Western 
Avenue  Sewer  Men,  $77.50;  Chicago  Ticket  Brokers' 
Association,  $y8;  Chicago  Typographical  Union, 
$200;  Grand  Crossing  Police,  $46;  Hyde  Park  Water 
Department,  $29;  Wood's  Circus,  $30;  Picnic  at 
Gardener's  Park,  $15.38;  Milk  Dealer's  Union,  $85; 
Hyde  Park  Liquor  Dealers,  $25;  Fourteenth  Pre- 
cinct Police  Station,  $43;  Spiegel's  Home  Furnish- 
ing Company,  $20;  "The  Leader,"  Chicago,  $100; 
"The  Hub,"  Chicago,  $200.  The  most  princely  gift 
among  the  down-town  establishments  was  that  of 
Siegel,  Cooper  &  Co.,  who  gave  200  barrels  of  flour 
Brewers  and  Maltsters'  Union  No.  18,  $50;  Sv/edish 
Concert,  $50;  Local  Union  553,  Fernwood,  $78.25; 
Chicago  Fire  Department,  $909.75;  German  Sing- 
ing Society,  $140;  cheque  from  Anaconda,  Mont., 
$250. 

The  donations  of  provisions  have  been  legion; 
everything  imaginable,  from  a  bottle  of  ink  to  a  car 
load  of  flour.  No  delicacies  or  luxuries,  but  the  sub- 
stantials  of  life  were  given  in  abundance.  Among 
the  articles  donated  may  be  mentioned  innumerable 
sacks  of  flour,  hams,  potatoes,  coffee,  peas,  soap, 
milk,  meat,  one  caddy  of  chewing  tobacco  and  seven 
pounds  of  smoking  tobacco  to  solace  the  minds  of 


44  MINOR  FEATURES  OF  THE  STRIKE 

anxious  strikers.  From  two  firms  came  boxes  of  shirts, 
and  one  Oppenheimer,  realizing  that  strikers  must 
not  go  hatless,  donated  a  box  of  hats. 

To  these  gifts  of  cash  and  provisions  must  be  added 
the  care  of  the  sick.  Three  hundred  dollars  has 
already  been  spent  for  the  care  of  the  sick. 
In  case  of  death  the  burial  expenses  aie  paid 
if  necessary.  Certain  physicians  of  Pullman 
and  surrounding  towns  have  kindly  given  their 
services  free  of  charge,  and  most  of  the  druggists  have 
given  donations  of  medicine.  To  summarize,  the  to- 
tal amount  of  money  (not  including  provisions)  given 
to  the  Relief  Fund  up  to  July  21st,  1894,  was  $15,- 
000.00,  the  total  expenses  to  same  date,  $14,000.00, 
leaving  a  balance  in  the  treasury  of  $1,000,00.  Be- 
sides this,  Mr.  S.  Keliher,  Secretary  of  the  A.  R.  U., 
has  another  $r, 000  subject  to  the  order  of  the  local 
Central  Committee.  In  the  distribution  of  provisions, 
the  greatest  care  has  been  taken  to  see  that  justice  is 
equally  dispensed  to  all.  At  this  writing,  2,700  families 
are  being    provided  for,  counting  six  to  a  family. 

Some  minor  features  of  the  strike  may  be  noted. 
It  has  naturally  caused  endless  discussions  pro  and 
con  among  the  residents  of  the  "model  town."  Class 
distinctions  have  always  been  a  marked  feature  of 
the  little  community,  and  the  influence  of  the  strike 
has  only  served  to  intensify  these  distinctions.  Out- 
side of  the  great  mass  of  the  employees  and  their 
families  there  is  a  little  coterie  of  individuals  termed 


^VHITE  RIBBONS  AND  FLAGS  45 

in  a  late  edition  of  the  Chicago  Evening  Post,  the 
aristocratic  element  of  the  town,  whose  headquarters 
may  be  called  the  beautiful  little  hostelry  known  as 
the  Florence  Hotel,  Here  the  officials  and  the  elite 
of  the  community  assemble  and  discuss  the  situation. 
Soon  after  the  white  ribbons  were  donned  by  the 
striking  employees  and  their  sympathizers  as  sug- 
gested by  Mr.  Debs,  those  who  were  opposed  to  the 
strike  wore  a  miniature  American  fiag.  Does  this 
mean  that  they  who  wore  the  flag  indicate  thereby 
that  the  striking  employees  are  un-American  endorsers 
of  lawlessness  and  anarchy?  Does  it  mean  that  the 
Pullman  strikers  are  treasonable  in  their  attitude  of 
a  quiet  and  determined  demand  for  justice  and  a  fair 
wage?  Let  it  be  remembered  that  no  correspond- 
ing town  of  its  size  in  the  country  can  boast  of  more 
well  organized,  active,  patriotic  societies  than  the 
town  of  Pullman,— the  G.  A.  R.,  the  P.  O.  S.  of 
A.,  the  P.  O.  D.  of  A.,  the  Sons  of  Veterans,  etc. 
There  is  as  much  if  not  more  patriotic  fervor  for  the 
old  flag  and  American  institutions  to  the  square  inch 
in  Pullman  than  in  any  other  town  in  the  country. 
And  who  is  it  that  compose  these  organizations?  It 
is  these  very  men  and  their  wives  and  daughters  who 
are  known  as  the  Pullman  strikers.  As  for  me,  I  would 
rather  wear  the  white  ribbon  wtih  the  American  flag 
over  it — American  labor  protected  by  the  stars  and 
stripes  in  its  demand  for  justice  from  the  inhumanity 
of  grasping  corporations.     My  friend  Rev.    F.  Atch- 


46  IVHO  ARE  THE  REAL  PATRIOTS? 

ison,  pastor  of  the  Hyde  Park  M.  E.  Church  of 
Chicago,  spoke  truly  at  a  late  mass  meeting  when 
he  said,  referring  to  this  subject,  "The  American  flag 
ought  to  be  the  best  guaranty  that  an  honest  day's 
work  should  receive  an  honest  day's  pay.  If  any 
one  class  more  than  another  was  entitled  to  wear 
and  carry  the  American  flag,  it  was  the  workingman. 
The  men  who  had  borne  the  flag  to  victory  in  the 
late  war  were  American  workingmen.  They  won  free- 
dom for  all."  The  speaker  said  that  if  ever  he  went 
on  a  strike  he  would  wear  both  the  white  ribbon  and 
the  American  flag.  At  Pullman  he  had  seen  the  white 
ribbon  and  the  G.  A,  R.  button  on  the  same  breast, 
and  both  emblems  were  in  good  company.  These 
are  true  words,  and  it  may  be  well  to  add  that  there 
are  thirty-seven  old  soldiers  among  the  Pullman 
strikers  who  wear  the  Grand  Army  button. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

FALLACIES  IN  PULLMAN'S  STATEMENT. 

So  peculiar  are  the  relations  of  the  Pullman  Com- 
pany to  the  town  of  Pullman  and  its  employees  that 
it  is  not  an  easy  task  to  one  unfamiliar  with  the  sit- 
uation to  point  out  the  sophistries  and  misleading 
points  in  Mr,  Pullman's  statements  to  the  public. 
A  gentleman,  well  known,  a  well  known  writer  for 
the  press,  remarked  to  me  after  carefully  looking 
over  the  ground,  that  it  would  be  a  very  easy  matter 
to  write  up  a  strong  argument  in  favor  of  the  Pullman 
Company,  and  on  the  other  hand,  an  easy  matter  to 
make  out  a  strong  case  in  favor  of  the  employees. 
But  to  give  a  fair  and  impartial  statement,  showing 
wherein  the  Company  had  dealt  wrongly  with  its  em- 
ployees, required  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  situa- 
tion. 

This  is  true.  There  are  three  statements  before  the 
public  from  the  Pullman  Company's  standpoint. 
The  first  was  given  on  May  9th  by  Mr.  Pullman  to 
his  employees,  in  answer  to  their  committee,  who 
waited  on  him  two  days  before  the  strike. 

The  second  was  given  to  the  public  on  June  12th 
by  the  Company,  just  previous  to  the  putting  into 

47 


48  EXCUSE  FOR  PUBLIC  PREJUDICE 

effect  of  the  boycott  on  the  Pullman  cars  by  the  Amer- 
ican Railway  Union,  and  the  third  statement  was 
given  on  July  13th  by  Mr.  Pullman  himself  under 
date  of  New  York,  in  defense  of  his  attitude  in  re- 
fusing to  arbitrate.  These  statements  are  all  so 
plausible  upon  their  face  that  I  am  not  at  all  surprised 
that  so  many  have  been  inclined  to  criticise  the  ac- 
tion of  the  employees  and  endorse  the  apparently 
magnanimous  position   of  the  Company. 

Furthermore,  the  attitude  of  the  Chicago  press  has 
been  such  as  to  completely  bewilder  the  thoughtful 
and  intelligent  citizen  who  desires  to  know  the  truth, 
and  to  poison  the  minds  of  that  element  in  our  midst 
whose  sympathies  naturally  gravitate  to  the  side  of 
wealth. 

I  presume  that  if  I  had  lived  in  Chicago  instead  of 
Pullman,  and  knew  nothing  about  the  Pullman  strike 
except  what  I  read  in  three  of  the  leading  Chicago 
newspapers,  I  would  have  raised  my  hand  in  holy 
horror  against  these  wicked  Pullman  strikers  and  all 
belonging  to  their  side,  and  would  have  sustained 
Mr.  Pullman  and    his  company. 

But  living  as  I  do  in  Pullman,  having  studied  the 
situation  carefully  for  two  years,  and  being  absolutely 
independent  of  the  company  and  employees,  I  know 
enough  to  enable  me  to  read  between  the  lines  of  these 
beautiful  Pullman  statements  and  note  the  fallacies  of 
their  position. 

I  hold  Mr.  Pullman  responsible  for  the  whole  situ- 


THE  FEUDAL  SYSTEM  49 

ation  by  virtue  of  his  presidency  of  the  company,  and 
the  marvelous  influence  he  exercises  over  the  whole 
Pullman  system.  He  is  the  King,  and  he  demands  to 
the  full  measure  of  his  capacity  all  that  belongs  to 
the  insignia  of  royalty.  It  is  about  as  difficult  for  an 
ordinary  man,  one  of  his  employees,  to  see  Mr.  Pull- 
man as  for  a  subject  of  Russia  to  see  the  Czar.  Every 
official  of  his  company  is  absolutely  subject  to  his 
authority.  He  expects  it.  He  will  have  it.  I  have 
been  surprised  to  hear  those  who  have  sat  in  his 
presence  describe  the  lordly  manner  in  which  he 
treats  even  those  who  are  nearest  to  the  throne. 
Sometimes  he  meets  with  gentlemen  among  his 
officials  who  object  to  this  subserviency.  Instances 
have  been  related  to  me  of  gentlemen  who  have  re- 
belled against  Mr.  Pullman's  absolutism  and  resigned 
rather  than  endure  it.  Of  course  this  is  Mr.  Pull- 
man's right,  but  it  seems  to  me  that  imperialism  on 
the  part  of  a  gentleman  so  powerful  in  influence  as  Mr, 
Pullman  is  unpleasant  to  say  the  least,  and  capable 
of  producing  harm  whether  intentional  or  not  toward 
those  in  authority  under  him.  It  is  unfortunate  to 
work  for  a  corporation  realizing  that  if  you  once  dis- 
pute the  will  of  the  king,  off  goes  your  head.  Im- 
perialism on  the  part  of  the  king,  breeds  imperialism 
in  the  court.  Even  subordinates  become  infected 
with  the  disease,  and  great  harm  is  thereby  produced 
among  the  subjects.  If  the  public  will  reflect  upon 
this  they  will  see  how,  under  a  system  like  that  upon 


50  CHE  '^REGULAR  IVEEKLY  LETTER" 

which  PuUman  is  founded,  great  dissatisfaction  can 
easily  be  produced  among  the  employees.  Upon 
careful  examination  I  find  in  conversation  with  the 
employees  that  one  half  the  trouble  in  the  shops  has 
been  produced  by  unfair  and  tyrannical  dealing  on 
the  part  of  certain  foremen  and  others  in  the  local 
administration.  Mr.  Pullman  certainly  must  be  aware 
of  these  things,  and,  if  so,  why  did  he  not  see  that 
they  were  remedied  long  ago?  If  he  did  not  hear 
of  or  know  these  things,  then  somebody  has  either 
willfully  misrepresented  the  true  state  of  affairs  to 
him,  or  colored  the  statements  to  suit  themselves. 
I  am  in  a  position  to  know  that  information  of  every- 
thing going  on  in  the  town  of  Pullman,  social,  polit- 
ical, shop  talk,  town  talk  of  any  importance,  and  so 
on,  is  conveyed  by  letter  every  week  to  headquarters 
from  the  town  proper.  I  have  no  objection  to  that. 
But  still  I  don't  like  it.  I  accept  it  as  a  peculiarity 
of  the  system  upon  which  the  town  is  established. 
For  instance,  during  my  first  year  as  pastor  a  certain 
unfortunate  occurrence  took  place  in  connection  with 
a  gentleman,  a  member  of  my  church  and  an  em- 
ployee. Before  the  week  was  out,  I  was  roused  from 
my  sleep  one  night  by  a  gentleman  in  the  employ  of 
the  Company,  who,  in  the  presence  of  my  wife  and 
myself,  took  a  stenographic  report  of  the  affair.  The 
gentleman  informed  me  that  it  was  necessary  to  have 
a  correct  report  so  that  he  could  embody  it  in  his 
regular  weekly  letter  to   the  president.     That  was 


TYRyimilCAL  PETTY  OFFICIALS  51 

an  eye-opener  to  me.  I  dislike  espionage.  But  as 
long  as  it  is  a  part  of  the  system,  it's  all  right,  and 
I  will  not  complain.  But  it  produces  unpleasant  re- 
flections. 

From  this  standpoint,  I  hold  Mr.  Pullman  respon- 
sible for  the  situation.  But  while  I  do  so,  I  am  ready 
to  allow  that  perhaps  he  was  not  cognizant  of  the 
true  state  of  affairs  from  the  reason  assigned  above. 
I  do  not  hesitate,  however,  to  place  a  large  measure 
of  responsibility  upon  the  general  and  local  manage- 
ment. The  authority  vested  in  officials  of  such  a 
large  corporation  as  this,  gives  opportunity  for  the 
exercise  of  great  power.  When  a  few  officials  are 
given  the  right  to  employ  or  discharge  men,  to  set 
the  prices  of  labor  and  to  decide  a  thousand  questions 
concerning  the  details  of  a  vast  business  indissolubly 
connected  with  the  welfare  and  financial  prospects  of 
3,000  men,  I  contend  that  such  officials  should  be  ab- 
solutely free  from  favoritism,  tyrannical  dealing,  or 
unfairness.  While  I  make  all  allowance  for  motives 
of  jealousy  and  anger,  still  I  submit  it  to  the  public 
and  to  the  directors  and  president  of  the  Company, 
if  it  be  not  reasonable  to  believe  that  favoritism,  tyr- 
anny and  unfairness  do  exist  in  the  local  manage- 
men,  when  2,000  men  universally  declare  such  to  be 
the  case. 

Let  us  note  some  points  in  Mr.  Pullman's  state- 
ments.    Point  I. — He  says: 

"A  little  more  than  a  year  ago  the  shops  at  Pull- 


52  AMOUNT  OF  SAVINGS  DEPOSITS 

man  were  in  a  prosperous  condition;  work  was  plenty, 
wages  were  high  and  the  condition  of  the  employees 
was  indicated  by  the  fact  that  the  local  savings  bank 
had  of  savings  deposits  nearly  $700,000,  of  which 
nearly  all  was  the  property  of  the  employees," 

"A  little  more  than  a  year  ago"  would  take  us  back 
to  June,  1893,  According  to  the  Report  of  the  Pull- 
man Loan  &  Savings  Bank  for  July  25,  1893,  as  pub- 
lished in  the  Pullman  Journal,  the  official  organ  of 
the  Pullman  Company,  there  was  in  liabilities,  the 
following: 

Capital  stock  paid  in $  100,000.00 

Surplus  fund 75,000.00 

Undivided  profits 27,252.83 

Savings  deposits  subject  to  notice...  631,354.25 

Individual  deposits  subject  to  check.  368,365.76 

Demand  certificates  of  deposit 2,538.26 

Certified  checks 40.00 

Cashier's  checks  outstanding 2,972.94 

Total. $1,207,524  04 

According  to  the  above,  there  is  a  slight  difference 
between  Mr.  Pullman's  $700,000  and  the  bank  state- 
ment on  "Savings  deposits."  Merely  a  matter  of  $68,- 
645.75.  Now  the  question  arises,  was  the  $631,354.25 
entirely  the  amount  deposited  by  the  employees, 
mechanics  and  laborers.?  It  is  a  well  known  fact 
that  some  of  the  officials  are  depositors  in  the  local 
bank.  The  salaries  of  these  gentlemen  are  large, 
many  of  the  heads  of  departments  draw  good  pay, 
and  these  naturally  deposit  in  this  bank.  Further- 
more,   the   local   storekeepers  are    depositors    also. 


l^ALLACIES  INMA\  PULLMAN'S  ESTIMATES  53 

Many  storekeepers  in  Roseland,  Kensington  and 
Gano  deposit  therein,  also  treasurers  of  lodges.  One 
gentleman  in  the  employ  of  the  company  is  said  to 
have  $30,000.00  deposited.  I  am  acquainted  with 
one  employee,  who  informed  me  that  he  sold  his  farm 
in  an  adjacent  state  before  coming  here,  and  deposited 
$3,000.00  therein.  If  all  or  any  of  this  was  counted 
as  the  savings  of  employees,  then  it  would  be  com*- 
paratively  easy  to  make  such  a  glowing  statement. 
While  I  presume  that  part  of  the  above  enumerated 
items  were  credited  as  "individual  deposits  subject 
to  check,"  still  I  hold  that  some  of  them  were  credited 
to  "savings"  deposits.  And  further,  there  are  many 
working  pe  ople  not  employed  by  the  Pullman  Com- 
pany who  place  "savings  deposits"  in  the  Pullman 
Bank  because  of  its  reliability. 

If,  for  illustration,  I  deposit  $10.00  to-day  on  my 
own  account  as  savings,  and  to-morrow  deposit 
$200.00  on  my  own  account,  money  entrusted  to 
me  by  my  church  to  meet  future  expenses,  it  would 
not  be  fair  to  reckon  my  account  as  "savings  de- 
posits" of  the  employees,  and  base  a  statement  there- 
on for  the  general  public.  As  a  matter  of  informa- 
tion, and  an  interesting  fact  connected  with  the 
subject  under  discussion,  I  am  informed  by  a  gentle- 
man well  qualified  to  speak, that  among  the  employees, 
the  class  who  save  the  m.ost  money  out  of  their  wages 
are  the  common  laborers.  The  foreign  elemxent  in 
our  midst  are  far  more  saving  than  our  native  Amer- 


54  SURPLUS  /ih!D  ST^Rl^ATIOhl 

ican  mechanics.  They  hve,  many  of  them,  as  an 
American  mechanic  would  not  wish  to  Hve,  and  con- 
sequently save  more  money  out  of  their  scant  earnings 
than  our  mechanics. 

Again,  if  $700,000  indicated  the  amount  actually 
belonging  to  the  employees  in  1893,  then  how  is  it 
that  they  were  in  arrears,  as  the  Company  elsewhere 
afiirm,  $70,000  on  rent  at  the  time  of  the  strike,  May 
1894?  If  the  employees  were  worth  $700,000  in 
August  1893,  and  in  May  1894  had  not  only  drawn  it 
all  out  of  the  bank,  but  were  $70,000  in  arrears  on 
rent  besides,  it  certainly  proves  that  their  v^^ages  were 
so  small  that  they  were  gradually  moving  toward  the 
"starvation  wage"  point,  as  affirmed  so  often  by  the 
employees,  I  make  no  pretenses  as  a  financier,  but 
I  know  right  from  wrong.  This  statement,  thought- 
fully pondered  by  the  public,  from  my  point  of  view 
looks  serious,  when  we  remember  the  vast  wealth  of 
this  company,  the  great  surplus  at  its  command  (for 
one  year  only,  1892,  $3,250,  389.07),  its  two  per  cent 
quarterly  dividend  ($600,000)  over  and  above  all  ex- 
penses, and  then  think  of  its  cruel  cutting  of  the 
wages  of  its  employees. 

A  visitor  came  to  this  town  last  summer,  made  his 
home  at  the  luxurious  Florence  Hotel,  and  forthwith 
sat  down  and  wrote  a  little  pamphlet  entitled,  "The 
Story  of  Pullman,"  in  which,  after  eulogizing  it  as  a 
"town  that  is  bordered  with  bright  beds  of  flowers 
and  green   velvety    stretches  of  lawn,  shaded  with 


JlbLPFbL  COMBINATION,  MUTUAL  RECOGNIIION       65 

trees,  and  dotted  with  parks  and  pretty  water  vistas, 
and  glimpses  here  and  there  of  artistic  sweeps  of  land- 
scape gardening;  a  town,  in  a  word,  where  all  that 
is  ugly  and  discordant  and  demoralizing  is  eliminated, 
and  all  that  inspires  to  self-respect  is  generously  pro- 
vided," he  closes  his  book  stating  that  the  town  of 
Pullman  "has  illustrated  the  helpful  combination  of 
Capital  and  Labor  without  strife  or  stultification, 
upon  the  lines  of  mutual  recognition."  This  book  is 
endorsed  by  the  company  and  is  handed  to  every 
visitor  to  Pullman  who  desires  a  copy.  Now  if,  the 
times  are  so  depressing  as  to  compel  the  employees 
who  have  been  long  faithful  to  the  company  to  eat 
up  their  little  savings,  why,  if  this  company  believes 
in  "mutual  recognition,"  do  they  not  themselves  bear 
a  little  of  this  burden  of  "depressing  times?"  Why 
does  not  Mr.  Pullman  stand  before  his  board  of  di- 
rectors, who  represent  the  3,246  stockholders  of  the 
Pullman  Company,  of  which,  1,800  control  the  funds 
of  educational  and  charitable  institutions,  and  of 
which  1,494  are  women,  among  them,  as  we  are  told, 
Her  Majesty,  Queen  Victoria,  and  demand  of  them 
upon  the  basis  of  morality  and  right  that  instead  of 
declaring  a  quarterly  dividend  of  2  per  cent  in 
these  terribly  depressed  times,  they  declare  a  divi- 
dend of  one  and  one-half  per  cent,  and  place  the 
$114,000,  representing  the  other  one-half  percent,  to 
the  credit  of  the  pay  roll? 

This  may  not  be  "business,"  but  it  would  be  "mu- 


56  IVH/IT  THB  SPRINGFIELD  RCPUBLiCAN  S/lYS 

tual  recognition."  While  the  PuHman  Company  claims 
on  the  one  hand  that  its  whole  system  is  purely  finan- 
cial, with  not  one  ounce  of  real  philanthropic  blood 
flowing  through  its  veins  (which  is  certainly  true  of 
its  non-arbitrating  President),  still  it  has  caused  thou- 
sands of  dollars'  worth  of  complimentary  literature  to 
be  scattered  abroad  for  these  many  years,  throughout 
the  country,  like  the  above  pamphlet,  giving  a  quasi- 
endorsement  to  the  alleged  fact  that  the  town  is  estab- 
lished as  a  solution  of  the  industrial  problem  upon 
the  basis  of  "mutual  recognition."  In  support  of 
my  position  on  this  matter,  I  quote  entire  an  edito- 
rial taken  from  the  columns  of  the  Daily  Repicblican, 
of  Springfield,  Mass.,  under  date  of  Wednesday,  July 
II.  It  hits  the  nail  on  the  head.  It  is  gratifying  to 
learn  that  my  position  is  not  altogether  Utopian,  and 
is  supported  by  one  of  the  most  reliable  journals  of 
the  country: 


PULLMAN  PROFITS  AND  WAGES. 

"After  the  smoke  of  the  present  battle  has  cleared 
away,  the  merits  of  the  original  controversy  between 
Mr.  Pullman  and  his  employees  will  remain  as  a  sub- 
ject of  some  public  inquiry  and  discussion.  Closely 
bearing  on  this  point  is  the  financial  condition  of  the 
Pullman  Company.  Its  operations  for  the  last  two 
full  fiscal  years,  ending  July  31, resulted  as  follows: — ■ 


PHENOMENAL  PROFITS  OP  THE  COMPANY  57 

1892.  1893. 

Earnings,  $8,061,081        $9,200,685 

Royalties,  profits,  etc.,        1,941,275  2,189,211 


Total  revenue,  $10,002,356  $11,389,896 

Operating  expenses,  $3,438,863  $3,825,940 

Other  expenses,  1,013,104  1,037,508 

Dividends  on  stock,  2,300,000  2,520,000 


Surplus,  $3,250,389        $4,006,448 

"Thus,  after  declaring  a  dividend  on  the  stock  of  8 
per  cent,  the  company  had  left  a  surplus  in  1893 
large  enough  to  have  warranted  an  extra  dividend  of 
over  10  per  cent,  and  in  1892  it  could  have  declared 
an  extra  dividend  of  8  per  cent,  above  the  8  per  cent 
actually  divided.  Ever  since  1876  this  company  has 
paid  dividends  of  from  8  to  9  1-2  per  cent,  and  rare 
has  been  the  year  in  which  it  has  not  carried  a  large 
sum  to  the  surplus  account,  which  in  the  main  has 
not  been  invested  in  the  plant  of  the  company,  and 
is  presumably  available  in  large  part  for  division 
among  the  stockholders — an  aggregate  sum  to  date 
of  some  $24,000,000,  or  within  $12,000,000  of  the 
entire  amount  of  capital  invested  from  the  stock. 
Mr.  Pullman  personally  is  a  very  wealthy  man,  said 
to  be  worth  some  $25,000,000. 

"This  is  a  very  remarkable  showing  of  profits  from 
manufacturing  industry.  Its  parallel  for  richness  is 
hardly  to  be  found  in  the  country,  outside  of  the  sugar 
trust  and  one  or  two  other  combinations.  It  cannot 
be  found  among  the  railroads  or  among  any  of  the 
ordinary  manufacturing  or  mercantile  enterprises. 
It  is  the  biggest  gold  mine  probably  uncovered  in  the 
country  before  the  advent  of  the  'trust'  idea. 

"When  the  great  strike  and  riots  of  1877  were 
precipitated    by  a  reduction  of    10  per  cent  in  the 


58        IVHY  SHOULD  L/IBOR  STAND  ALL  THE  LOSS? 

wages  of  the  employees  of  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio 
and  other  roads,  Mr.  Garrett's  company  was  paying 
lo  per  cent  on  its  stock;  and  The  Republican  held 
at  the  time  that  the  company  should  have  put  at  least 
a  part  of  the  reduction  upon  capital^  reducing  the 
dividend  rate  to,  say,  9  per  cent,  after  which  wages 
might  be  brought  into  consideration.  And  at  that 
time  10  per  cent  on  money  was  far  less  above  the 
general  average  of  rates  than  it  is  to-day. 

"It  maybe  a  question,  therefore,  for  philanthropists 
and  labor  reformers  to  consider,  whether  Mr.  Pull- 
man, in  view  of  the  extraordinary  profits  he  and  his 
company  were  accumulating,  was  or  was  not  morally 
bound  to  share  more  generously  with  his  men  in  the 
effects  of  the  hard  times.  He  believes  in  paternalistic 
methods,  and  has  put  them  in  operation  at  his  works 
to  a  degree  not  equaled  anywhere  else  in  America. 
What  could  be  more  in  consonance  with  this  policy 
than  at  such  a  time  to  dip  back  into  the  surplus  of 
$4,000,000  made  in  the  single  previous  year  and  keep 
up  the  wages  of  employees  who  are  so  carefully  housed 
and  otherwise  looked  after  as  so  many  dependents 
at  Pullman?  It  may  not  be  true  in  other  cases,  but 
it  is  certainl}'  true  of  such  a  system  of  paternalism, 
that  wage  reductions  can  not  be  justified  in  the  face 
of  such  profits  as  the  Pullman  Company  exhibits," 

Point  2.  Take  another  item  in  Mr.  Pullman's 
statement.  He  says:  "Our  pay  rolls  for  that  year 
(1893)  show  an  average  earning  of  over  $600  per  an- 
num for  every  person,  man,  woman  or  youth,  on  the 
roll." 

Following  the  reasoning  adopted  above,  it  might 
be  asked,  Was  this  estimate  based  upon  the  earn- 
ings of  mechanics  and   laborers  alone  .-•     The    local 


CONTRACTS  TAKEN  AT  A  LOSS  5S 

Pullman  pay  roll  is  said  to  include  all  except  the 
manager  and  assistant  manager.  The  pay  roll  includes 
the  large  clerical  force,  heads  of  departments,  all 
monthly  hands,  foremen,  etc.  Then,  again,  let  the 
general  public  remember  that  included  in  the  earnings 
of  these  men  for  1893  was  the  immense  amount  of 
money  earned  for  over- time.  The  winter  of  1893 
was  one  of  the  busiest  in  the  history  of  the  company. 
The  employees  labored  day  and  night.  For  weeks 
at  a  time  I  did  not  see  the  men  connected  with  my 
church,  except  on  the  Sabbath.  The  employees,  of 
course,  were  allowed  extra  pay  for  the  over-time,  and 
this  naturally  swelled  the  amount  of  the  pay-roll. 
This,  of  course,  would  make  it  easy  to  estimate  the 
above. 

Point  J.  Mr.  Pullman  also  says  in  his  statement 
that  he  took  certain  contracts  for  building  cars  at  a 
loss  and  that  he  did  so  simply  to  keep  his  men  em- 
ployed. 

There  is  no  doubt  and  never  has  been  in  the 
minds  of  his  employees  that  he  took  certain  contracts 
at  a  loss.  Behind  this  statement,  which  has  gone  forth 
all  over  the  country,  Mr.  Pullman  has  maintained 
an  apparently  impregnable  position;  and  the  public 
naturally  says:  "How  can  Mr.  Pullman  pay  the  wages 
of  1893,  while  at  the  same  time  he  is  losing  money  on 
certain  contracts  for  building  cars.?" 

But  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  great  bulk 
of  work  done  in  the  Pullman  shops  was  the  repairing 


60  MOST  OF  THE  WORK  REPAIRS 

of  old  cars  shipped  in  from  all  over  the  country;  cars 
that  had  been  doing  service  for  fhe  World's  Fair 
traffic.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  sixty  per  cent  of  the 
work  done  in  the  shops  at  the  time  of  the  strike  was 
repair  work,  and  not  new  work.  The  repair  work 
was  Mr.  Pullman's  own  work,  done  by  him  under  con- 
tract with  the  railroad  corporations  running  his  cars. 
When  their  employees  were  cut  33  1-3  per  cent,  in 
some  cases  40  per  cent  and  in  others  50  per  cent,  it 
was  for  work  done  not  only  on  the  comparatively  small 
amount  of  new  contracts  in  the  shops,  but  principally 
on  the  repairing  of  old  cars.  Furthermore,  I  under- 
stand that  a  certain  amount  of  this  repair  work  is 
done  at  the  expense  of  the  railroads  running  the  cars. 
Of  course  the  company,  while  it  cuts  wages,  does 
not  repair  cars  foV  the  roads  at  a  less  figure  than 
heretofore  on  account  of  "hard  times." 

Let  the  public  also  bear  in  mind  that  while  the 
girls  employed  in  the  laundry  department  of  the 
great  shops  (no  small  part  of  the  business)  were  cut 
in  their  wages,  nevertheless  the  price  of  berths  on 
the  Pullman  Palace  cars  was  not  reduced  to  the  gen- 
eral public.  If  you  ate  your  dinner  in  a  Pullman 
Palace  Car,  and  wiped  your  mustache  upon  a  Pull- 
man napkin,  laundered  by  these  girls,  you  did  not 
have  to  pay  less  for  your  dinner  as  a  result  of  their 
reduction  in  wages! 

It  seems  that  there  is  another  side  of  this  loss  of 
money  on  contracts.     An   interview  with   one  of  the 


Wis  BY MISM/fNAGEMENT  61 

brightest  men  ever  in  the  employ  of  the  Pullman 
Company,  indicates  to  me  that  while  money  has  been 
lost  on  a  few  contracts,  and  wages  thereby  cut,  still 
thousands  of  dollars  were  squandered  in  the  shops  last 
year  by  mismanagement.  For  instance,  suppose 
there  was  a  loss  per  car  of  a  certain  amount.  It  is 
thought  that  the  system  of  keeping  tally  on  all  lum- 
ber used  in  car  construction  is  faulty.  Word  comes 
to  change  the  whole  system.  That  change  does  not 
remedy  the  evil,  is,  on  the  contrary,  productive  of  a 
lot  of  useless  red-tape,  and  the  result  is  that  there  is 
a  change  that  involves  a  practical  loss  of  $9  to  $10 
per  car.  My  informant  further  states  that  during  the 
winter  of  1893,  when  the  shops  were  running  night 
and  day  in  certain  departments,  machinery  would 
run  for  hours  without  any  actual  work,  merely  be- 
cause of  some  notion  from  headquarters.  Changes  in 
machinery  and  constructions  of  machinery  were 
made,  regardless  of  cost  and,  in  the  estimation  of 
my  practical  informant,  unnecessarily.  Further,  he 
declares  that  the  engineer's  office,  departments  of 
estimate  and  figures  on  construction  of  cars,  is  a  useless 
expense  (as  it  was  then  run),  entailing  a  drain  of 
$2,000  per  month  at  least  on  the  Company's 
exchequer.  Probably  these  losses  may  have  had 
something  to  do  with  the  reduction  of  wages.  If  so,  it 
would  have  been  more  just  to  have  laid  the  responsi- 
bility where  it  belonged  and  cut  gentlemen  with  high 
salaries  rather  than  take  it  out  of  the  "wage-earners." 


62  SEN/fTOR  SHERMAN  "5  OPINION 

So  peculiar  are  the  methods  of  the  Pullman  Com- 
pany in  transacting  its  business,  that  the  attention  of 
Congress  was  not  long  ago  called  to  it  by  no  less  a 
personage  than  Senator  Sherman,  of  Ohio.  To 
quote  the  language  of  a  Washington  correspon- 
dent of  the  Inier  Ocean,  it  seems  that  the  movement 
was  "initiated  in  the  Senate  before  the  strike  began, 
and  it  had  been  a  subject  of  serious  consideration  by 
Mr.  Sherman  for  many  years.  He  proposes,  in  short, 
that  the  Pullman  Company  shall  be  brought  within 
the  provisions  of  the  interstate  commerce  act,  and 
that  Congress  shall  enact  a  law  requiring  that  cor- 
poration to  give  the  public  better  accommodations  at 
lower  rates.  He  would  require  the  Pullman  Company 
to  keep  the  upper  berths  up  if  not  sold,  and  would 
reduce  rates  one  half.  The  subject  is  one  as  to 
which  there  is  very  likely  to  be  a  unanimity  of  senti- 
ment in  Congress,  The  Pullman  Company  has  so 
widely  advertised  its  disposition  to  charge  extortionate 
rates  and  to  refuse  to  accommodate  the  public,  that  if 
Mr.  Sherman  shall  press  his  measure, that  corporation 
will  find  that  it  will  not  have  a  state  legislature  to 
deal  with." 

Senator  Sherman  said  to  this  correspondent: 

"I  regard  these  rates  as  simply  infamous.  It  is 
outrageous  for  us  to  be  compelled  to  pay  such  high 
prices  for  such  poor  accommodations  as  we  receive 
in  our  trips  to  and  fro  about  the  country.  They 
give  you  a  short,  narrow  berth,  so  close  and  uncom- 
fortable that  in  many  cases  one  would  rather  sit  up 


A  MOST  OUTRAGEOUS  MONOPOLY  G3 

all  night  than  submit  to  the  inconveniences  of  the 
compartment.  If  you  get  a  lower  berth  and  no  one 
has  the  upper,  the  porter  insists  upon  putting  down 
the  lid  and  so  increasmg  your  misery  rather  than 
giving  you  the  benelit  of  the  air.  I  do  not  know  why 
this  is  so,  unless  it  is  an  effort  on  the  part  of  the  com- 
pany to  make  their  prestige  all  the  greater  and  the 
more  unendurable. 

"I  regard  the  Pullman  Company  and  the  sugar 
trust  as  the  most  outrageous  monopolies  of  the  day. 
They  make  enormous  profits,  and  give  their  patrons 
little  or  nothing  in  return  in  proportion.  It  is  per- 
fectly clear  to  me  that  there  is  a  way  to  reach  the 
sleeping-car  problem  with  ease  through  government 
action.  States  have  in  many  instances  adopted  reg- 
ulations intended  to  reduce  the  evil  of  extortionate 
charges  on  the  railroads,  but  there  are  few,  if  any, 
railroads  that  run  sleepers  through  but  one  state, 
and  thus  these  laws  are  of  no  avail,  for  nc  state  can 
regulate  any  corporations  beyond  its  own  limits. 

"The  United  States  can  easily  control  the  charges 
for  sleepers, just  as  the  railway  fares  have  been  reg- 
ulated by  means  of  the  interstate  commerce  law.  I 
believe  that  that  act  has  been  amply  enforced  without 
very  much  trouble,  and  I  can  see  no  reason  why  a 
similar  act  should  not  be  passed  with  reference  to  the 
sleeping-car  problem.  A  bill  of  a  dozen  lines  would 
suffice,  fixing  the  rate  per  mile  to  be  charged  by  these 
companies  and  providing  a  penalty  for  overcharging. 
I  think  the  rates  should  be  reduced  one-half.  The 
Pullman  Company,  for  instance,  is  very  rich,  made  so 
by  the  enormous  and  disproportionate  profits  on  its 
cars.  With  half  that  profit  the  company  could  make 
a  great  deal  of  money  and  give  the  public  better 
service. 

"Perhaps  you  do  not  know,  but  it  is  nevertheless 
a  fact,    that    the    Pullman    Company  charges  each 


64  A  SPECIMEN  OF  PETTY  EXTOR  TION 

railroad  running  its  cars  a  cent  a  mile  for  every  car,  and 
this  goes  into  the  pockets  of  Pullman  in  addition  to 
the  rates  paid  by  the  passenger.  For  instance,  be- 
tween New  York  and  Chicago  the  railroad  pays  about 
$io  for  each  sleeper  run,  and  the  Pullman  Company 
gets  several  times  that  sum  in  addition  from  the  pub- 
lic. That  $10  paid  by  the  railroad  is  counted  into 
the  running  expenses  of  the  road,  and  is  eventually 
paid  by  the  passenger  in  the  fare  he  gives  for  his  ride. 
So  the  traveler  pays  twice,  in  reality,  for  his  ques- 
tionable accommodations  on  board  a  sleeper,  I  feel 
these  heavy  rates  myself  frequently,  for  when  we  go 
out  to  our  home  in  Ohio  we  have  to  pay,  for  my  wife, 
my  daughter  and  myself,  as  much  for  sleeper  rates  as 
for  the  entire  railroad  fares.  The  berths  are  so  close 
and  uncomfortable  that  we  have  to  spread  out  over  a 
good  deal  of  space  in  order  to  avoid  being  made  ill  by 
the  journey." 

The  Senator  also  referred  to  the  question  of  tip- 
ping as  a  species  of  petty  extortion.    He  continued:  — 

"It  is  a  small  matter  in  the  individual  case,  but 
it  is  an  extortion  to  pay  the  porter  for  each  trip  you 
take.  The  trouble  is  that  these  men  are  not  paid 
enough  by  the  company.  If  they  were  paid  adequate 
salaries  the  passengers  would  not  be  obliged  to  come 
forward  to  help  them  out.  I  really  think  the  men 
need  the  money  in  most  cases,  and  I  always  give,  be- 
cause I  do  not  want  to  feel  or  to  appear  mean  about 
the  matter.  There  is  a  sort  of  compulsion  about  it, 
though,  that  is  very  disagreeable,  and  it  could  all  be 
avoided." 

Another  matter  referred  to  by  the  Senator  is  inter- 
esting reading: 

"There  is  one  matter  that  should  not  be  overlooked 
in  this  consideration.      The   main    patents   on  these 


RAILROADS  SHOULD  MAKE  THEIR  OIVN  CARS        65 

sleepers  have  expired,  and  there  is  no  reason  why  the 
railroads  should  not  begin  now  to  make  and  run  their 
own  cars.  I  was  acquainted  with  the  original  inventor 
of  the  sleeping  car,  who  is  now  dead.  He  was  obliged 
to  sell  out  to  the  Pullman  Company  and  they  have  held 
the  monopoly  with  great  care.  The  first  patents  have 
now,  I  believe,  run  out,  and  although  the  Pullmans 
have  taken  out  letters  for  some  improvements,  I  think 
it  would  be  perfectly  easy  for  the  monopoly  to  be 
broken.  I  think  that  this  abuse  can  be  reached,  and 
I  propose  to  press  this  matter  to  some  sort  of  conclu- 
sion. It  seems  to  me  that  the  American  people  l^ave 
suffered  uncomplainingly  long  enough,  especially  as 
there  is  a  remedy  at  hand." 

I  may  be  regarded  as  presumptuous  in  quoting  as 
freely  from  Senator  Sherman's  interview.  The  same 
sentiments  have  been  expressed  by  the  Pullm.an 
strikers  individually  and  upon  the  public  platform. 
But  when  uttered  by  a  United  States  Senator  they 
carry  with  them  a  weight  of  influence  far  beyond  that 
given  to  them  by  the  poor  wage-earner.  It  is  pleasant 
to  have  a  United  States  Senator  on  your  side.  And, 
moreover,  it  is  good  to  quote  that  powerful  journal 
the  Inter  Ocean,  as  uttering  sentiments  in  harmony 
with  those  entertained  by  the  Pullman  strikers.  So 
cruel  and  fearfully  unjust  has  been  the  attitude  of  this 
newspaper  to  the  labor  man  and  the  Pullman  em- 
ployees in  particular,  during  the  past  nine  weeks, 
that  it  is  like  an  oasis  in  the  desert  to  quote  it  against 
this  grinding  and  "nothing  to  arbitrate"  corporation. 

It  seems  to  me  that  even  if  Mr.  Pullman  did  take 
contracts  for  new  work  at    a    loss,    this    did    not,  in 


G6  NO  NEED  TO  INSPECT  THE  BOOKS 

view  of  the  foregoing  facts,  form  a  valid  excuse  for 
the  continual  cutting  of  wages.  Money  was  lost,  I 
have  no  doubt,  in  prosperous  times,  not  on  the  net 
labor  and  material,  but  "because  afterward  a  snug 
sum  of  'general  expense' — cf  a  fancy  plant,  salaries 
of  clerks,  superintendents,  and  all  attaches  of  the 
general  office— were  thrown  into  the  bill  of  contract," 
to  say  nothing  about  the  immense  losses  and  waste 
in  experimenting.  But  the  company  can  take  con- 
tracts— "lose  money" — and  miake  it  back  in  money 
through  rental. 

Point  4..  Mr.  Pullman  offered  to  allow  the  em- 
ployees the  privilege  of  inspectmg  his  books. 

This  is  true,  but  the  employees  had  no  need  to  con- 
sult his  books.  There  may  have  been  a  few  who  did 
not  believe  he  lost  money  on  certain  contracts,  but 
the  majority  of  them  accepted  his  statement  as  cor- 
rect. There  were  those,  however,  who  believed  that 
in  some  way  or  other  the  books  were  "doctored"  to 
suit  the  Company's  side  of  the  question,  and  still 
others  that  there  was  a  double  set  of  books  kept  by 
the  company  which  would  make  it  impossible  to  get 
at  the  facts  in  the  case.  While  this  may  not  be  true, 
still  it  indicates  the  suspicious  condition  of  mind  en- 
gendered by  the  Company's  past  treatment  of  its  em- 
ployees. '  And  further,  wdth  such  a  complicated  and 
intricate  system  of  bookkeeping  as  that  of  the  Pullman 
Company,  how  could  working-men  be  expected  to 
arrive  at  conclusions  therefrom  .'' 


MR.  PULLMAN'S  INGENIOUS  EP'ASION  67 

Point  s.  In  his  final  statement  Mr.  Pullman  re- 
fers to  the  question  of  arbitration,  and  very  ingeni- 
ously evades  the  whole  question  at  issue.      He  says: 

"How  could  I,  as  president  of  the  Pullman  com- 
olny,  consent  to  agree  that  if  any  body  of  men  not 
mocerned  with  the  interests  of  the  company's  share- 
aeders  shou!d,  as  arbitrators,  for  any  reasons  seem- 
g%  good  to  them,  so  decree,  I  would  open  the  shops, 
nnploy  workmen  at  wages  greater  than  their  work 
tould  be  sold  for  and  continue  this  ruinous  policy 
indefinitely  or  be  accused  of  a  breach  of  faith?  Who 
Will  deny  that  such  a  question  is  plainly  not  a  sub- 
ject of  arbitration?  Is  it  not,  then,  unreasonable 
that  the  company  should  be  asked  to  arbitrate  whether 
or  not  it  should  submit  such  a  question  to  arbitration  ?" 

Now,  it  was  never  asked  of  Mr.  Pullman  that  he 
consent  to  arbitration  with  the  condition  attached  that 
he  open  his  shops  and  employ  his  men  at  wages 
greater  than  their  work  could  be  sold  for.  Nor  was 
he  asked  to  continue  his  ruinous  policy  indefinitely. 
When  approached  by  the  Committee  of  the  Com- 
mon Council,  all  that  was  asked  of  him  was  arbitra- 
tion on  the  question  as  to  whether  or  not  there  was 
anything  to  arbitrate.  If  his  position  was  right, 
then  he  had  nothing  to  fear.  It  is  absurd  to  attempt 
to  treat  the  relation  between  a  giant  corporation  and 
its  army  of  organized  workmen  quite  on  the  old 
simple  footing  of  one  employer  and  his  one  hired 
man.  Arbitration  alone  can  settle  these  difficulties. 
I  submit  if  here  is  not  a  basis  of  arbitration:  i. 
Less  cut  in  wages.  2.  Reduction  of  rents.  3. 
Equalization  of  wages.  4.  Reform  of  abuses  prac- 
ticed in  the  shops. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

CUTTING  WAGES. 

Let  the  general  public  remember  one  thing  which 
has  caused  the  Pullman  employees  to  stand  in  a  wrong 
light  before  the  world.  They  are  quoted  as  wanting 
the  wages  of  '93  for  work  done  at  a  loss.  When  the 
employees  agreed  to  ask  for  the  wages  of  '93  they  did 
what  a  great  many  people  do,  they  intended  to  ask  for 
a  certain  thing  and  failing  in  that  t  o  compromise  on 
what  they  really  did  want.  They  felt  their  cause 
was  just  and  if  they  failed  to  get  the  restoration  of  the 
scale  of  1893,  they  expected  that  the  Company  would 
agree  to  lessen  the  severity  of  the  cut  in  wages  (say 
to  make  it  about  25  per  cent,  instead  of  33  1-2  per 
cent),  and  then  to  reduce  their  rents,  equalize  their 
wages,  and  change  the  innumerable  petty  abuses  to 
which  they  were  being  subjected  in  the  shops.  Mr. 
Pullman,  however,  was  too  sharp  for  them,  and  in- 
stead of  generously  and  openly  deciding  to  do  what 
every  just  person  agrees  ought  to  have  been  done,  he 
found  it  very  convenient  to  take  the  men  at  their 
word  and,  without  any  compromise,  evade  the  main 
issue  under  the  specious  plea  of  not  being  able   to 

68 


lVy4GES  yIND  RENTS  ABOUT  EQUAL  6& 

pay  wages  of  '93  on  the  basis  of  losing  contracts. 

It  is  generally  agreed  that  the  maximum  average 
wage  paid  at  the  time  of  the  strike  was  $1.90,  As 
to  the  lowest  wages,  it  is  dif^cult  to  average.  The 
wages  are  paid  every  two  weeks.  Two  checks  are . 
given  to  each  employee — one  a  rent  check,  the  other 
a  pay  check.  Wages  are  paid  at  the  bank.  When 
they  go  to  the  bank  to  receive  their  two  weeks'  pay 
the  half  month's  rent  is  taken  out,  and  the  pay  check 
cashed.  The  scenes  enacted  at  the  bank  during  last 
winter  were  pitiable.  Not  only  was  the  current  rent 
urgently  demanded,  but  back  rent  was  asked  for  under 
circumstances  in  many  cases  entirely  uncalled  for. 
After  deducting  rent  the  men  invariably  had  only 
from  one  to  six  dollars  or  so  on  which  to  live  for  two 
weeks.  One  man  has  a  pay  check  in  his  possession 
of  iivo  cents  after  paying  rent.  He  has  never  cashed 
it,  preferring  to  keep  it  as  a  memento.  He  has  it 
framed,  Another  I  saw  the  other  day,  iox  seven  cents. 
It  was  dated  September,  '93,  The  man  had  worked 
as  a  skilled  mechanic  at  ten  hours  a  day  for  twelve 
days,  and  earned  $9.07.  He  keeps  a  widowed  mother, 
and  pays  the  rent,  the  house  being  in  his  name.  His 
half  month's  rent  amounted  to  $9.00,  The  seven  cents 
was  his,  but  he  has  never  claimed  it.  Another  em- 
ployee had  47  cents  coming  to  him  on  his  pay  check, 
and  then  was  asked  if  he  would  not  apply  that  on  his 
back  rent.  He  was  indignant.  He  replied:  "If  Mr. 
Pullman  needs  that  47  cents  worse  than  I  do,  let  him 
have  it,"  He  left  it. 


W  NO  REDUCTION  IN  RENTS 

Many  employees  took  advantage  of  the  present  law 
governing  wages,  and  retained  a  part  and  sometimes 
all  their  rent  money  to  sustain  their  families.  Thus 
it  was  that  the  employees  fell  in  arrears  in  rent  to  the 
extent  of  $70,000. 

The  average  cut  in  wages  was  33  1-3  per  cent;  in 
some  cases  it  was  as  much  as  40  per  cent,  and  in 
many  was  fifty  per  cent.  These  cuts  in  wages  with- 
out corresponding  reduction  in  rents  were  very  severe, 
and  largely  produced  the  dissatisfaction  which  re- 
sulted in  the  strike. 

As  for  those  who  had  always  earned  good  wages 
and  were  living  in  the  better  class  of  houses,these  cuts 
bore  down  upon  them  with  increasing  severity.  One 
man,  an  expert  in  certain  kinds  of  work,  not  neces- 
sary to  mention,  as  it  might  injure  him,  v/as  cut  from 
thirty-five  cents  an  hour  to  twenty-three  cents,  and 
was  about  to  be  cut  lower.  These  wages,  even  when 
cut,  were  not  so  bad,  but  the  great  trouble  in  so  many 
cases  was  they  could  not  put  in  full  time.  This  man, 
all  through  the  winter,earned  just  barely  enougli  each 
pay  day  to  meet  his  rent.  His  wife, taking  in  board- 
ers and  room,ers,was  thus  able  to  keep  the  wolf  from 
the  door.  A  first-class  mechanic  worked  ten  hours 
a  day  for  two  weeks  and  then  only  earned  $9.90. 
Laborers  in  the  fall  and  winter  earned  nine  cents  an 
hour  shifting  lumber. 

In  this  whole  question  of  wages  the  public  must 
bear  in  mind  that  the  wage    difficulty    was  not    the 


IVAGES  NOT  THE  IVHOLE  TROUBLE  71 

whole  trouble.  Other  things  being  equal,  the  men 
could  have  borne  with  more  grace  the'  reduction  of 
wages.  But  there  was  personal  abuse  and  tyrannical 
dealing  in  the  shops,  no  reduction  of  rents,  the 
loss  of  time,  and  a  hundred  minor  abuses  inherent  in 
the  system,  that  make  the  question  of  wages  in  Pull- 
man different  to  that  found  in  any  other  place.  There 
is  but  one  town  of  Pullman  in  America,  and  that  is 
sui  generis. 

While  all  the  employees  were  cut  in  wages,  many 
were  still  able  to  live,  gentlemen  as  they  are,  who 
on  principle,  were  willing  to  bear  almost  anything 
rather  than  complain.  A  goodly  number  had  no 
particular  complaint  at  all,  but  while  opposed  to  the 
strike,  they  were  in  hearty  sympathy  with  those  upon 
whom  the  burden  of  the  cut  was  most  severe.  The 
cuts  seemed  to  fall  unequally  on  different  classes  of 
employees,  the  scale  was  changed  so  often  that  the 
men  were  in  a  constant  condition  of  wonderment  as 
to  what  would  be  the  next  move.  The  worst  feature 
was  that  while  the  most  of  the  work  was  done  by 
piece  work  rather  than  time  work,  they  did  not  have 
the  opportunity  to  put  in  full  time.  For  two  or  three 
months  in  the  winter  the  hours  of  labor  were  seven 
hours  a  day.  Later,  as  work  increased,  the  time  in- 
creased to  ten  hours  per  day.  The  employees  com- 
plained bitterly  of  their  loss  of  time,  all  through  the 
winter.  I  heard  it  on  every  side.  In  a  large  estab- 
lishment like  the  Pullman  Shops  there  must  necessa- 


73  INSPECTORS  AND  MORE  INSPECTORS 

rily  be  a  large  force  of  foremen,  under  foremen,  sub- 
bosses,  as  well  as  heads  of  departments  and  higher 
officials.  Instead  of  decreasing  these  foremen  and 
under  bosses,  while  cutting  wages,  these  sub-bosses 
and  inspectors  were  increased  to  such  an  extent  as 
to  make  it  positively  unbearable  in  certain  depart- 
ments. 

The  employees  were  cut  on  an  average  of  33  1-2 
per  cent  in  their  wages,  many  of  them  40  per  cent 
and  not  a  few  50  percent.  Trimmers  were  compelled 
to  work  on  a  car  by  contract  so  low,  that  after  the 
wages  was  worked  out, it  would  take  three  to  five  days 
to  finish  the  car,  and  not  one  cent  allowed  to  them 
thereon.  First-class  mechanics  would  work  ten 
hours  a  day  for  two  weeks  and  receive  $9  90.  La- 
borers were  known  to  labor  for  nine  cents  an  hour 
for  ten  hours'  work,  and  earn  the  glorious  sum  of 
ninety  cents  per  day.  Inspectors  or  sub-bosses  were 
placed  over  little  gangs  of  men,  to  see  that  the  same 
quality  of  work  was  squeezed  out  of  the  already  cruelly 
reduced  employees,  as  they  had  always  been  doing. 
It  was,  therefore,  not  surprising  in  many  cases  that 
the  wages  were  so  low  that  with  the  high  rents  they 
could  not  live. 

Let  me  illustrate  by  the  case  of  a  mechanic  em- 
ployed in  the  iron  department  He  works  on  a  cer- 
tain machine. 

He  earned  $1.40  per  day.  If  he  has  full  time 
(which  he  has  not)  he   earns  $36.40   in  one    month. 


FORTY-NINE  CENTS  A  DAY  73 

We  will  say  that  he  is  a  married  man  and  occupies  a 
flat  of  five  rooms,  for  which  he  pays  $14.  50  per  month. 
This  leaves  him  $21.90  to  clothe,  feed  and  otherwise 
provide  for  his  family,  or  about  eighty-four  cents  per 
day.  He  can  get  another  flat  for  $12  50,  in  a  house 
having  four  flats  to  the  building,  on  another  street. 
He  can  live  in  the  tenement  blocks  for  $9.00 
or  $7.00.  But  what  man  who  desires  to  bring  up 
his  family  aright  desires  to  live  there? 

You  can  make  the  same  calculation  upon  the  basis 
of  $1.85,  which  all  agree  was  the  average  wages  paid 
at  the  time  of  the  strike.  Out  of  that  $1.85  per  day 
you  must  deduct  rent  and  water  rate,  on  the  basis 
of  $18.50  plus/i  cents,  $17.00  plus  7i>cents,  $14.50 
plus  50  cents,  $12.50  plus  50  cents,  $6.50  plus  50 
cents,  $8.60  plus  50  cents,  brickyards  $8.00,  Before 
drawing  conclusions,  read  chapter  on  rents,  and  see 
what  your  intelligent  American  mechanic  gets  in  re- 
turn for  the  above  rents,  and  which  kind  of  rent  he 
will  be  most  likely  to  come  under. 

One  man,  a  common  laborer  with  a  family  to  sup- 
port, said  he  received  for  the  days  he  was  given  work 
forty-nine  cents  a  day.  His  rent  for  the  month,  in- 
cluding water  rates,  was  $8.21.  There  was  left  out  of 
his  pay  check  less  than  $3  with  which  to  support  his 
family. 

One  of  the  blacksmiths  who  was  at  the  works  for 
years  says  he,  when  at  work,  earned  forty-five  cents 
in  six  hours.     When  the  Pullman  Company's  ultima- 


74  A  BLACKSMITH   STARVED  OUT 

turn  was  given  that  the  strikers  must  go  to  work  at  the 
reduced  rates  or  leave  Pulhnan,  he  declared  that  he 
would  leave,  because  if  he  had  to  starve  he  wouldn't 
starve  and  wear  out  his  clothes  at  the  same  time  at 
Pullman's  anvil.  He  and  his  companions,  he  said, 
were  among  the  first  to  get  out. 

Another  man,  a  few  days  before  the  strike, got  a  pay 
check  for  his  month! s  labor  which  came  forty-five 
cents  short  of  balancing  his  rent  account.  A  bill  for 
its  balance  was  made  out  and  the  collector  was  sent 
with  it  to  his  house  for  payment.  What  this  man  was 
going  to  live  on  until  his  next  pay  check  and  riext 
month's  rent  were  due,  he  didn't  know,  and  he  did  not 
require  much  persuasion  to  quit. 

The  blacksmiths,  who  formerly  made  from  $4  a  day 
upwards,  say  that  at  the  time  they  went  on  strike, 
after  three  cuts  in  their  wages  within  six  weeks,  they 
could  not  average  more  than  $1  a  day.  One  of 
them,  a  man  who  is  counted  one  of  the  best  opera- 
tors in  the  shop,  was  only  able  to  make  $1.03  in 
three  days. 

Carvers,  who  are  a  very  high  grade  of  skilled  arti- 
sans and  who  generally  receive  high  wages,  had  been, 
at  the  time  of  the  strike,  cut  down  until  they  received 
only  twenty-five  cents  an  hour. 

Stripers,  another  high  grade  of  workmen,  got  twenty 
cents  an  hour,  while  painters  got  only  nineteen  cents. 
A  part  of  the  winter  they  were  only  permitted  to 
work  seven  hours. 


HO IV  THE   IVOMEN  /IRE  TREATED  75 

It  seems  that  these  cuts  were  worse  in  some  de- 
partments than  in  others;  and  even  in  the  sam.e  de- 
partments there  would  be  a  strange  lack  of  equaliza- 
tion. 

I  will  quote  here  a  letter  written  by  Miss  Jennie 
Curtiss,  an  employee  of  the  Company,  which  will  give, 
in  her  own  language,  a  description  of  the  Company's 
treatment  of  the  employees  in  the  women's  depart- 
ment. I  have  read  this  letter  to  a  young  woman, 
an  employee  in  the  "New  Work"  department,  who  is 
very  conservative  and  reliable,  and  well  qualified  to 
testify  on  these  points.  She  corroborates  everything 
written  herein: 

"Being  an  employee  of  the  Pullman  Company  for 
the  past  five  years,  I  can  truthfully  state  the  follow- 
ing. There  are  two  sewing  rooms  in  the  Pullman 
works;  one  is  where  all  the  new  work  is  done,  such 
as  new  carpets,  window  curtains,  silk,  satin,  velvet, 
and  plush  draperies  made  for  parlor,  dining  and 
chair  cars  only.  We  also  sew  the  plush  and  tapestry 
with  which  the  seats  and  backs  of  the  sleepers  are  up- 
holstered, and  make  all  the  sheets,  pillow-slips,  table- 
cloths, towels,  napkins  and  linen  of  all  descriptions 
used  in  the  dining  cars  and  sleepers.  We  also  make 
all  kinds  of  berth  curtains. 

"Then  there  is  the  Repair  shop  sewing  room,  where 
all  of  the  repairing  is  done.  I  have  worked  in  both 
departments, three  years  and  a  half  in  the  new  sew- 
ing room,  and  one  year  and  a  half  in  the  Repair  shop 
sewing  rooms.  The  work  in  these  sewing  rooms  is 
made  mostly  piece  work  and  some  day  work.  I  will 
state  some  of  our  prices. 

893 carpet,    90    cents    a  section. 

carpet,    20    cents  a    section, 


16  PRICES  PAID  FOR  JVORK  ON  CARPET  S 

"It  is  true  we  were  making  these  carpets  (under  the 
reduction)  by  machine,  that  is  about  half  of  them,  and 
the  other  half  of  them  had  to  be  finished  by  hand, 
and  the  machine  sewing  did  not  save  ten  per  cent  of 
the  work,  and  I  have  known  girls  that  made  these 
carpets  by  machine  at  twenty  cents  a  section,  to  only 
make  five  cents  an  hour.  These  carpets  are  cut  and 
made  in  sections.  The  carpet  is  all  in  one,  but  it  is 
cut  in  such  odd  shapes  and  slashes  made  to  fit  the 
cars  that  from  one  cut  to  the  other  we  call  a  section. 
These  carpets  are  large  and  small,  they  run  from  four 
to  nine  sections;  therefore  a  nine  section  carpet  that 
we  received  ninety  cents  a  section  for  in  1893, 
would  be  $8.10;  in  1894  at  twenty  cents  a  section, 
only  $1.80.  There  have  been  a  great  many  mistakes 
made  about  the  prices  of  these  carpets  in  the  state- 
ments of  the  papers,  and  that  is  why  I  have  tried  to 
explain  as  much  as  possible  in  regard  to  them. 

1893  A  three  window  drapery.  $1.50 

1894  "     "  "  "  80 

1893  A  two  window  drapery  1.25 

1894  *'     "  "  "  48 

1893  A  one  window  drapery  i.oo 

1894  "      "  "      .        "      .  45 

1893  I  enclosed  section  curtain  35 

1894  "      "  "  "  15 

1893  I  mattress  tick,  folding  (37   1-2),        40 

1894  I       "  ''         ''  •  18 

1893  I       "  "  single     (27),  25 

1894  I       "  "  "  10 
"These  prices  are  in  the  Repair  shop  sewing  room, 

in  which  place  I  worked  last.  They  get  the  same 
price  for  the  same  work  in  the  new  room,  but  the 
prices  on  the  linen  and  several  other  things  I  can  not 
give.  There  are  numerous  other  kinds  of  work  we 
make  for  the  cars,  which  would  take  too  much  time 
and  space  to  mention,  which  has  all  been  cut  from 


/INNOV/INCES  SUFFERED  FROM  A  FOREWOMAN  77 

time  to  time  to  the  very  lowest  standard.  For  four 
years  we  were  allowed  to  make  $2.25  a  day  at  the 
prices  of  1893,  which  was  very  good  wages  for  a  girl, 
but  which  we  well  earned,  as  it  was  very  tedious  and 
confining,  and  long  hours.  At  the  time  the  shops 
closed  on  account  of  the  strike,  I  was  earning  on  an 
average  eighty  cents  a  day,  at  the  prices  of  1894. 
It  was  very  hard  to  have  to  work  for  such  small 
wages  as  that,  which  would  afford  a  person  a  mere 
existence.  But  the  tyrannical  and  abusive  treatment 
we  received  from  our  forewoman  made  our  daily  cares 
so  much  harder  to  bear.  She  was  a  woman  who  had 
sewed  and  lived  among  us  for  years,  one,  you  would 
think,  who  would  have  some  compassion  on  us  when 
she  was  put  in  a  position  to  do  so.  When  she  was 
put  over  us  by  the  superintendent  as  our  forewoman, 
she  seemed  to  delight  in  showing  her  power  in  hurt- 
ing the  girls  in  every  possible  way.  At  times  her  con- 
duct was  almost  unbearable.  She  was  so  abusive  to 
certain  girls  that  she  disliked,  that  they  could  not 
stand  it, and  would  take  their  time  and  leave,  who 
would  otherwise  have  been  working  there  to-ddy.  If 
she  could  make  you  do  a  piece  of  work  for  twenty- 
five  cents  less  than  the  regular  price,  she  would  do 
so  every  time.  In  fact  she  cut  a  great  deal  of  work 
down  herself.  I  have  had  many  a  dispute  with  her 
myself  about  cutting  down  our  prices  just  to  get  the 
work  done  cheaper,  thinking  she  would  stand  jn  bet- 
ter with  the  Company.  She  was  getting  $2.25  a  day 
and  she  did  not  care  how  much  v/e  girls  made,  whether 
we  made  enough  to  live  on  or  not,  just  so  long  as  she 
could  figure  to  save  a  few  dollars  for  the  Company. 
When  a  girl  was  sick  and  asked  to  go  home  during 
the  day,  she  would  tell  them  to  their  face  they  were 
not  sick,  the  cars  had  to  be  got  out,  and  they  could 
not  go  home.  She  also  had  a  few  favorites  in  the 
room,  to  whom  she  gave  all  the  best  work,  that  they 


78  SICKNESS.  DEATH  AND  RENT 

could  make  the  most  money  on.  We  would  com- 
plain of  her  to  the  foreman  and  general  foreman,  but 
they  all  upheld  her,  and  if  you  were  not  willing  to 
take  her  abuse  you  could  go.  There  is  now  lying  in 
Mr.Wickes'  office  in  Chicago  a  petition  signed  by  fif- 
teen girls  in  the  sewing  room, requesting  her  removal. 
There  are  only  eighteen  girls  working  under  her.  No 
doubt  she  will  remain  in  the  employ  of  the  Pullman 
Company,  as  that  is  just  the  kind  of  people  they  want 
at  the  heads  of  their  departments — one  who  will 
help  grind  down  their  laborers.  My  father  worked  for 
the  Pullman  Company  for  ten  years.  Last  summer 
he  was  sick  for  three  months,  and  in  September  he 
died.  At  the  time  of  his  death  we  owed  the  Pull- 
man Company  about  sixty  dollars  for  rent.  I  was 
working  at  the  time  and  they  told  me  I  would  have 
to  pay  that  rent,  give  what  I  could  every  pay-day, 
until  it  was  paid.  I  did  not  say  I  would  not  pay, 
but  thought  rather  than  be  thrown  out  of  work  I 
would  pay  it.  Many  a  time  I  have  drawn  nine  and 
ten  dollars  for  two  weeks'  work,  paid  seven .  dollars 
for  my  board  and  given  the  Company  the  remaining 
two  or  three  dollars  on  the  rent,  and  I  still  owe  them 
fifteen  dollars.  Sometimes  when  I  could  not  possibly 
give  them  anything, I  would  receive  slurs  and  insults 
from  the  clerks  in  the  bank,  because  Mr.  Pullman 
would  not  give  me  enough  in  return  for  my  hard  labor 
to  pay  the  rent  for  one  of  his  houses  and  live. 

Jennie  Curtiss." 


Here  is  another  letter,  written  by  an  employee  in 
the  freight  department.  Some  pitiable  tales  are  told 
by  the  freight-car  builders,  concerning  their  hardships 
during  the  past  winter.  I  have  the  man's  name  and 
address,  but  will  not  use  it,  for  fear  of  retaliation: 


STORY  OF  A  FREIGHT-CAR  BUILDER  71 

"Pullman,  111.,  July  22,  '94. 
Rev.  W.  H.  Carwardine. 

Dear  Sir: — I  will  try  and  give  you  a  few  facts. 
I  am  a  freight-car  builder,  have  worked  for  the  Pull- 
man Co.  since  the  loth  of  January,  1S92, and  I  don't 
think  we  asked  too  much  when  v/e  asked  our  wages 
restored  to  what  they  were  in  1893,  as  we  did  not 
make  any  more  than  a  fair  living  at  that  time.  The 
highest  pay  that  I  made  for  two  weeks  in  1893  was 
$34  72,  and  I  can  truly  say  that  m.y  wages  for  the 
year  did  not  exceed  $1.80  per  pay.  Up  to  the  be- 
ginning of  the  strike,  I  had  run  in  debt  about  one 
hundred  dollars;  one  half  of  this  for  rent, the  rest  for 
groceries  and  meat.  I  have  reported  for  work  every 
day  that  the  shops  were  open  for  work,  up  till  the 
strike  began,  and  never  missed  even  one  hour,  except 
when  I  moved  my  family  here.  I  have  a  wife  and 
four  children,  and  it  was  for  them  that  I  struck,  as  I 
think  that  when  a  man  is  sober  and  steady,  and  has 
a  saving  wife,  one  who  is  willing  to  help  along,  and 
after  working  two  and  a  half  years  for  a  company  he 
finds  himself  in  debt  for  a  common  living,  something 
must  be  wrong.  Some  folks  have  said  that  we  should 
have  been  satisfied.  So  v/e  would  have  been,  if  we 
had  been  assured  that  this  cut  of  fifty  per  cent  was 
only  temporary,  and  the  Company  had  done  the  fair 
thing  on  the  rent  at  the  same  time.  But  no !  I  was 
told  just  before  the  strike  by  one  of  the  foremen  that 
the  Company  had  work  for  six  months,  and  if  we  had 
kept  on  the  Company  would  have  owned  us  by  that 
time.  So  with  a  prospect  of  \vorking  an  indefinite 
length  of  time  at  these  prices  and  under  an  overbear- 
ing and  profane  foreman,  we  struck  and  will  stay  out 
until  the  battle  is  fairly  won,  or  we  have  to  step  out 
for  good,  and  I  believe  if  we  do  have  to  move  out, 
the  Pullman  Company  will  rue  the  day,  because  I 
never  saw  a  better  class  of  mechanics  than  there  are 


90  NO  ANARCHISTS  IN  THE  FAMILY 

in  Pullman  to-day,  and  I  never  lived  in  a  more  orderly 
town  in  my  life, and  I  don't  believe  there  would  have 
been  one  single  dollar's  worth  of  property  destroyed 
in  this  town  if  the  Company  hadn't  gone  to  the  ex- 
pense that  they  have,  as  well  as  the  city  and  state. 
I  don't  think  that  George  M.  Pullman  is  as  well  ac- 
quainted with  his  children  as  he  pretends  to  be,  or  he 
would  have  known  that  there  was  not  one  single 
anarchist  in  his  whole  family.  Leaving  you  to  use 
any  part  of  this,  or  all  if  you  wish,  I  remain. 

Very  respectfully  yours." 

"P.  S.  I  was  born  in  the  United  States,  as  were 
my  parents  before  me  and  as  were  their  parents  before 
them." 


The  following  statement  will  give  some  definite 
idea  to  the  general  reader  as  to  the  reduction  of  wages 
in  the  Freight  Department: 


"Pullman,  July  23,  1894. 
Rev.  W.  H.  Carwardine. 

Dear  Sir: — I  have  been  employed  as  car-builder  in 
the  freight  department  of  the  PullmanPalace  Car  Com- 
pany for  the  past  twelve  years.  The  best  wages  that 
I  ever  averaged  as  car-builder  was  $2.  10  per  day,  and 
when  the  strike  began  my  wages  averaged  seventy 
cents  per  day.  I  have  paid  $11,57  per  month  rent  for 
the  past  eight  years.  The  treatment  we  have  re- 
ceived from  the  foreman  of  the  Company  has  been 
worse  than  the  slaves  ever  received  in  the  south. 

"I  shall  give  you  some  prices  paid.  These  figures 
I  take  from  a  ledger  secured  from  the  general  time- 
keeper from  the  freight  shops. 


FIGURES  SHOWING  THE  EXylCT REDUCTIONS  81 

Lot  1 5 15 Oct.,    1888 

Car-builder $13.00 

Truck  builder 90 

Truck  labor 31 

Hanging  brakes 1.20 

Delivery   forgings 1.05 

Delivery  lumber 88 

Framing 40 

Total $17.74 

"The  same  car  with  latest  improvements, in  Novem- 
ber, 1893. 

Car-builder $7 .  00 

Truck     * '       60 

Truck  labor 09 

Hanging  brakes 65 

Delivery  forgings  ." 35 

Delivery  lumber 21 

Framing 12 

Total $9.02 

Average  wages  in    1888 $2.26 

Average      "       "    1893 $1.03 

"I  shall  show  figures  of  the  car  that  we  struck  on, 
the  Wickes  Refrigerator,  in  1889. 

Car-builders $36.00 

Truck     " 90 

Truck  labor 32 

Hanging  brakes 1.20 

Delivery  forgings i .  3 1 

Delivery  lumber i  .46 

Framing 85 

Total $42.04 


82  FIGURES  SHOWIhlG  THE  EXACT  REDUCTIONS 

"The  same  car,  1894,  with  the  latest  improvements. 

Car  builder $19.50 

Truck    "      60 

Truck   labor 10 

Hanging    brakes 60 

Delivery  forgings 56 

Delivery  lumber 64 

Framing 26 

Total $22.26 

Reduction  of $19  78 

Average  of  wages      1 889 $2. 00  per  day 

Average"     "  1894 91  per  day 

Respectfully." 


The  following  table  will  indicate  the  reductions 
in  the  upholsterers'  department.  The  list  of  reduc- 
tions here  used  throughout  the  chapter,  are  taken 
from  the  statement  of  the  Strikers'  Central  Commit- 
tee in  their  report  to  the  A.  R.  U.  Convention. 
They  claim  that  they  are  taken  from  the  official  books 
of  the  Company.  I  have  submitted  them  for  cor- 
roboration to  a  gentleman  who  has  been  for  many 
years  a  trusted  employee  of  the  Company,  who  is 
an  entirely  disinterested  party  and  is  in  a  position 
to  know,  and  he  says  that  they  are  correct: 


Tufted  head  rests,  with  springs. . . 
Tufted  head  rests,   without  springs. 

Spring-edge  backs 

Spring-edge  seats,   tufted 

Spring-edge  seats,  plain 

Aisle  ends 

Wall   ends 

Scroll  ends 

Mann  boudoir  seat,  tufted 

Mann  boudoir  seat,  plain 

Mann  boudoir  back 

Dining  car  plush  seats 

Dining  car  leather    seats 

Dining  car  plush  back 

Dining  car  leather  back 

Drawing-room  sofa  seats 

Smoking  room  sofa  seats 

Extra  long  sofa  seats 

Round-end  sofa  seats 

Drawing-room  sofa  backs,  plain . . 
Drawing-room  sofa  backs,  tufted.  . . 
Smoking-room  sofa  backs,  double. 
Smoking-room  sofa  backs,  single.. 

Sofa  panels,  tufted 

Sofa  panels,  with    arms 

Plush   panels,  per   car 

Sofa  rolls 

Large  car  chairs 

Detroit  chairs 

Wicker   chair,    square 

Wicker  chair,  round 

Wicker  chair.  No.    369 

Wicker  chair,  No.    1,036 

Wicker  sofa 

Cutting  carpets,  dining  car 

Cutting  carpets,  sleeping  car 

Cutting   carpets,  Wilton 

Laying  carpet  and  oil   cloth 

Mattresses,  new  folding 

Mattresses,  double 

Mattresses,    smoking-room 

Mattresses,  old  single 

Mattresses,  tourist. 

Loose  cushions 

Spring-edge  seats,  day  coaches 

Hard-edge  seats,  day  coaches 

Backs,  day  coaches 

Day   work 

Day   work 

Day  work , 

Day   work 

Day  work,  laborers 


1893. 


$  .85 

$     .41 

.65 

41 

.67 

.48 

1. 10 

•79 

.90 

.65 

.70 

•47 

.65 

•47 

1.25 

.70 

3.00 

1.70 

2.75 

1.51 

4.00 

2.85 

•37 

.34 

•43X 

•34 

.85 

.54 

•95 

•54 

350 

2.40 

3.50 

2.75 

4.00 

2.75 

2.75 

2.10 

.60 

■39 

2.00 

123 

4.00 

2.88 

2.00 

1.28 

.60 

•42 

•75 

.42 

1.02 

•79 

1.40 

.90 

5.75 

4.00 

5- 50 

3.60 

4-50 

3.20 

4.50 

2.90 

3.00 

1^75 

1. 00 

.70 

10.00 

5.00 

2.00 

.90 

2.00 

1. 10 

2.50 

1.50 

1.25 

.80 

.30 

.20 

.25 

.15 

.40 

.22 

.20 

.15 

.23 

•15 

•25 

20 

•79 

.6i 

•43 

•35 

■30 

•  27 

2.75 

1.90 

2.50 

1.90 

2.25 

I  80 

2.00 

1.50 

1.50 

1.30 

84     COMP/IRATlyE  WAGES  IN  PULLMAN  AND  ELSEWHERE 

Among  the  painters  the  following  table  will  give 
some  idea  as  to  their  reductions: 


Ornamental  painters 
Ornamental  pamters. 
Hardwood  finishers.  , 
Hardwood  finishers. 
Rubbers 


1S93. 

$  2.75 
2.50 
2.35 

2.2c 


1894. 


2.30 
2.30 
2.00 
1-75 
I50 


Piece  work  prices  have  been  so  reduced  that  the 
men  can  with  the  utmost  difficulty  make  their  day 
rate.  The  ornamentation  of  a  Pullman  sleeper  was 
reduced  from  $40  to  $25.30,  rubbing  rough  stuff  from 
$22  to  $15, and  all  other  work  in  the  same  proportion. 
It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  painters  in  Chi- 
cago have  by  their  recent  strike  secured  for  them- 
selves thirty-five  cents  an  hour  for  eight  hours'  work 
until  June  15,  and  32  1-2  cents  an  hour  thereafter. 
The  men  in  Pullman  have  extraordinary  skill,  but  are 
paid  at  the  rate  of  twenty-three  cents  an  hour,  a  differ- 
ence to-day  of  twelve  cents.  In  other  words,  the 
Chicago  brotherhood  men  are  getting  nearly  fifty- 
two  per  cent  more  than  the  members  of  the  Ameri- 
can Railway  Union.  If  it  be  asked  why  the  men  do 
"hot  leave  Pullman,  it  can  only  be  answered  that  many 
of  them  have  already,  and  that  more  will  follow.  But 
they  demand  justice  where  they  are. 

The  machinists  (Bolt  Headers'  Dept.)  are  asking  for 
the  same  scale  of  wages  as  paid  by  the  Chicago  Forge 
and  Bolt  Company  for  precisely  the  same  work.  The 
differences  are  startling,  the  Pullman  men  since  the 
cutting,  for  example,  getting  only  six  and  one-fourth 
cents  a  hundred  for  three-quarter  bolts,  while  the  Chi 
cago  concern  is  paying  eleven  and  three-fourth  cents. 
The  reduction  in  this  department  amounts  to  nearly 
fifty  per  cent.  The  threaders,  millwrights,  punch 
handlers,  drill  hands,  and  tool-makers  ask  for  the 
wages  of  1893.      These  last,  who  make  tools,  are  cut 


P^Y  OF  MOLDERS,  FOUNDR  YMEN  AND  BLACKSMITHS     85 

in  some  cases  to  $i  75  a  day,  from  $2.75  paid  last 
December.  In  addition,  the  superintendent  of  this 
department  is  a  bookkeeper,  merely,  and  has  frequently 
admitted  that  he  knows  nothing  whatever  about  ma- 
chinery or  the  requirements  of  the  work. 

Among  the  Foundrymen,  the  brass  molders  have 
been  cut  from  twenty  to  twenty-five  cents  a  day,  and 
the  laborers  and  furnace  men  twenty  cents.  The 
brass  finishers  lost  from  twenty-five  to  fifty  cents  a 
day.  The  molders  in  the  wheel  shop  were  cut  five 
cents  a  wheel,  amounting  to  $1  and  $1.20  a  day, 
while  the  helpers  have  fifty  cents  a  day  less  and  the 
laborers  ten  to  thirty-five  cents.  In  the  last  year  the 
men  in  this  department  have  only  been  given  twenty- 
eight  days'  actual  employment.  The  machine  de- 
partment men  were  reduced  twenty-five  cents  a  day. 
The  iron  foundrymen  who  do  piece  work  were  re- 
duced from  forty  to  seventy-five  cents  for  ten  hours' 
work,  the  day  workmen  forty  cents,  coremakers  from 
twenty  to  eighty  cents,  men  in  the  chipping  room 
twenty  to  seventy-five  cents,  and  the  yardmen  twenty 
cents. 

The  blacksmiths  suffered  a  cut  between  thirty 
and  fifty  per  cent.  Smiths  making  from  $3.  50  to  $4.00 
a  day  were  cut  down  to  between  $1.50  and  $2.50, 
the  helpers  suffering  accordingly. 

Among  the  employees  of  the  PullmanCompany  there 
are  a  number  of  young  women  working  in  the  carpet 
department,  the  new  linen-room,  the  linen  repair 
room,  the  glass-embossing  department,  and  the 
laimdry.  Before  May,  1893,  the  various  departments 
were  all  paid  at  the  rate  of  twenty-two  and  one- 
half  cents  an  hour.  The  cut  reduced  this  to  ten  cents 
an  hour,    a    scaling    down   of    sixty-eight  per    cent. 


P^Y  OF  STREET  CAR  tVGRKERS 


Many  girls  providing  for  invalid  mothers  or  small 
sisters  or  brothers  have  been  able  to  make  but  six 
cents  an  hour.  The  Illinois  statutes  compel  an  eight- 
hour  day  for  women. 

The  special  grievance  of  the  wood-machine  hands 
seemed  to  lie  in  their  opposition  to  piece  work. 
They  have  suffered  in  some  instances  a  cut  of  forty 
per  cent,  and  in  no  case  has  it  fallen  below  thirty- 
three  and  one-third  per  cent.  Some  reductions  are 
appalling.  Work  on  parlor  cars  formerly  worth  $35 
went  down  to  $5,  and  on  day  coaches  from  $6  to 
$1.75. 

The  following  are  the  reductions  made  in  the 
Street  Cars  department  since  May  ist,  1893:  — 

Body  Builders,  Inside  Finishers  and  Trimmers,  from 
$3  per  day  to  $2  per  day.  Cabinet  makers  were  cut 
fifty  per  cent.  Wood  machinists  from  $2.75  and  $2.25 
per  day  to  $2.40  and  $1.60  per  day.  Blacksmiths 
were  cut  sixty  per  cent.  Iron  Machinists  were  cut 
eighty-five  per  cent.  In  this  shop  if  a  man  made  a 
complaint  the  foreman  discharged  him,  telling  him 
that  he  would  bring  one  of  his  own  countrymen  over, 
who  would  do  as  much  work  as  any  six  Americans. 
The  shop  laborers  were  cut  from  $1.50  to  $1  30  per 
day.  Painters  were  cut  from  $3.00  per  day  to  $2. 10. 
Stripers  and  ornamenters  cut  about  sixty  per  cent. 
This  is  a  sample  of  prices  for  a  standard   closed  car: 


1892. 

1893. 

1894. 

gO(jy                                                                         

$  41.00 
30.00 

$33  50 
27.00 
17.00 

%  25.00 

22.00 

Trimming 

12.00 

In  view  of  these  extensive  and  repeated  cuttings  of 
wages,  it  is  no  wonder  that  sometimes  pay  checks 
showed  laborers,  rated  at  $1.35  per  day,    often  get- 


HOIV  TO  LiyE  TIVO  IVEEKS  ON  EIGHT  CENTS         87 

ting  but  ninety-one  cents  for  seven  hours'  work,  and 
finishers  or  trimmers  making  but  $13.70  or  even  $6.  57 
for  two  weeks'  work,  out  of  which,  by  the  terms  of 
the  leases,  the  rents  had  to  be  deducted.  As  I  have 
said  before,  there  were  any  number  of  cases  contin- 
ually, where  the  pay  check  amounted  to  less  than  five 
dollars,  and  in  some  instances  but  a  few  cents  left 
after  paying  the  rent. 

Imagine  how  a  workman  must  feel  after  laboring 
two  weeks,  to  step  up  to  the  bank,  and  have  either 
two  cents,  seven  cents,  eight  cents,  or  forty-seven  cents 
handed  to  him  to  keep  his  family  on  for  the  follow- 
ing two  weeks.  Not  much  "mutual  recognition"  in 
that! 

In  connection  with  the  cutting  of  wages  it  must 
be  remembered  that  the  failure  to  equalize  wages  pro- 
duced great  injustice  and  many  hardships  among  the 
employees.  I  have  it  on  good  authority  that  after  the 
Annual  Meeting  of  last  year  the  Company  decided 
upon  a  general  policy  of  reorganization  throughout 
the  whole  shops.  In  view  of  this,  work  was  slackened 
in  all  departments,  no  new  work  was  taken,  the  em- 
ployees were  laid  off  until,  along  in  September,!  was 
told  by  the  manager  that  there  were  not  more  than 
900  to  1,200  men  on  the  list.  I  understand  that  the 
"general  policy"  adopted  was  to  take  advantage  of  the 
"hard  times,"  and  open  up  later  with  a  view  to  cut- 
ting wages.  It  was  supposed  that  the  employees,  be- 
ing in  debt  to  the  Company  in  rent,  would  be  glad  of 


88  STATEMENTS  TO  MR.  PULLMAN  COLORED 

work,  and  accept  "cuts"  with  better  grace  than  if  the 
shops  had  not  been  practically  shut  down  for  two 
or  three  months.  I  believe  Mr.  Pullman  and  Mr. 
Wickes  were  desirous  of  putting  this  policy  into  force 
gradually  and  evenly,  and  1  have  reason  to  know  that 
Mr.  Pullman  did  not  wish  the  men  to  be  crowded 
more  than  they  were  willing  to  endure.  His  orders 
were,  "Go  slow."  His  managers  "drove  fast."  Driven 
to  desperation  by  repeated  slashings  and  cuttings  of 
the  managerial  whips,  the  employees  took  the  bit  in 
their  teeth,  and  upset  the  coach  in  the  ditch.  Mr. 
Pullman,  absent  half  of  his  time  from  the  city, scarcely 
coming  to  the  town  more  than  five  or  six  times  during 
the  winter,  knew  nothing  about  the  true  state  of 
affairs.  Statements  from  every  department,  weekly 
and  so  forth,  were  sent  to  him,  but  before  reaching 
him  there  is  no  doubt  that  they  were  colored  with 
such  a  roseate  hue  that  he  naturally  believed  all  was 
well.  What  an  easy  thing  for  him  to  drop  down  un- 
expectedly, post  himself  on  the  real  state  of  affairs, 
and  act  accordingly!  For  failure  to  do  that,  I  hold 
that  he  is  responsible  for  the  present  state  of  affairs. 
A  word  as  to  equalization.  First  of  all,  when  the 
wages  of  the  employees  were  cut,  why  did  he  not  cut 
the  salaries  of  the  officials, the  clerical  force, the  heads 
of  departments,  the  foremen,  inspectors,  etc..!*  True, 
some  of  the  foremen,  when  they  were  taken  back  to 
work  last  fall,  did  so  at  less  pay  than  when  they  went 
out,  but  they  were  the   only  ones,  and  that  was  not 


CABlhlET-M/iKERS  AND  UPHOLSTERERS  89 

a  "cut"  similar  to  that  received  by  the  employees  later 

on. 

Then,  again,  here  is  what  I  mean  by  equalization. 
Blacksmith  laborers,  required  to  do  the  hardest  kind 
of  work,  were  reduced  from  $1.50  to  $1.30  per  day. 
Now,  on  the  Passenger  Car  department  a  laborer 
whose  work  was  comparatively  light  and  easy,  was 
cut  just  the  same,  $1.50  to  $1.30.  I  contend,  in  jus- 
tice, that  the  blacksmith's  laborer  ought  to  have  been 
cut  less  than  the  other  laborer. 

Again,  cabinet-makers  and  upholsterers  were  cut 
about  the  same,  say  from  $2.75  to  $1.85;  some  as 
low  as  $1.55  to  $1.50  day  rate.  Now,  a  cabinet-maker 
should  not  be  cut  as  low  as  an  upholsterer,  for  the 
cabinet-maker  nas  to  provide  himself  with  a  kit  of 
tools  valued  from  $75.00  to  $100.00,  with  the  danger 
of  loss  by  breakage, etc.,  oesides  years  of  preparation 
for  his  special  work.  While  the  upholsterer's  work 
is  important  and  requires  skilled  labor,  yet  it  is  not  as 
high  grade  work  as  the  cabinet-maker's.  Yet  they 
are  cut  the  same,  without  regard  to  skill,  etc.  Even 
if  they  are  on  piece  work,  they  are  not  allowed  to 
make  more  than  day  rate.  In  some  cases  they  were 
both  cut  so  low  that  they  could  not  even  make  day 
rate.  Then,  again,  it  must  be  remembered  that  in 
all  departments  through  the  shops  the  scale  of  wages 
paid,  even  in  1893,  was  below  the  Union  scale  in 
vogue  throughout  Chicago  and  elsewhere.  During 
the  past  year  in  Pullman,  skilled  mechanics  could  not 


90  FOUR  AND  ONE-HALF  CENTS  AN  HOUR 

make  as  much   as  day   laborers  made  in  1893,  with 
a  few  exceptions. 

Another  case  in  point.  A  fireman  employed  in 
heating  the  great  boilers  of  the  Corliss  engine,  hard 
and  laborious  employment,  works  the  first  two  weeks 
of  the  month  for  eighty-six  hours  per  week,  and  the 
next  two  weeks  for  one  hundred  and  twenty-six 
hours  per  week,  seven  days  in  the  week.  He  thus 
labors  428  hours  per  month  or  about  sixteen  hours 
per  day,  and  receives    therefrom  $40.00  per   month 

pay- 
or again,  an  employee  in  the  iron  machine  shop 
is  given  a  job  consisting  of  fifty  pieces  of  iron,  each 
with  four  holes,  which  are  to  be  squared  and  trimmed. 
It  takes  him  just  one  hour  to  finish  one  piece, 
and  according  to  the  scale  given  to  him  by  the  under- 
foreman,  he  will  receive  four  and  one-half  cents  per 
piece;  four  and  one-half  cents  for  one  hour's  work, and 
he  a  good  mechanic,  capable  of  earning  $3.00  per 
day.  He  appeals  to  the  superintendent,  a  good 
man,  a  practical  man;  he  sees  the  injustice  of  the 
case,  agrees  to  have  it  remedied,  and  when  the  man 
was  paid,  he  found  he  had  been  allowed  twenty  cents 
for  them  instead  of  four  and  one-half  cents.  Now, 
this  man  was  fortunate  in  getting  justice,  but  all  over 
the  shops  men  were  imposed  upon  and  mistreated  in 
this  way,  who  got  no  redress. 

Mr.  Pullman  says  "nothing  to  arbitrate."  I  ap- 
peal to  the  public  if  there  was  not  "something  to  ar- 


PUTTING  ON  THE  SCREIVS  91 

bitrate"  here — less  reductions,    and   equalization    of 
wages. 

In  concluding  this  chapter,  I  would  add  that  two- 
thirds  of  the  abuses  practiced  in  the  shops  arose  over 
this  unmerciful  cutting  of  wages.  It  seemed  to  be 
the  policy  from  high  official  down  to  sub-boss,  to 
see  how  often  and  how  much  they  could  "cut"  their 
men.  Employees  who  occupied  positions  of  influence, 
were  seemingly  discharged  because  they  did  not  "cut" 
to  suit  those  over  them;  the  imported  gentlemen  who 
took  the  places  of  those  vacated,  in  order  to  sustain 
their  reputation  for  reducing  expenses,  must  necessa- 
rily "cut"  and  grind  those  beneath  them.  Apparently 
when  gentlemen  who  had  been  in  the  employ  of  the 
Company  seven,  eleven  and  twenty  years,  all  ca- 
pable and  practical  men, of  irreproachable  character, 
had  pressure  brought  to  bear  on  them  to  resign,  and 
their  places  filled  with  men,  not  practical,  some  not  as 
irreproachable  in  character  as  they  might  be,  but 
whose  sole  claim  to  position  was  that  they  would  not 
hesitate  to  put  the  screws  on  the  already  reduced 
employees, then  it  seems  to  me  that  the  Pullman  Com- 
pany has  forgotten  about  its  "mutual  recognition"  the- 
ory, and  prefers  to  have  just' such  as  these  latter  at 
the  head  of  the  affairs.  And  these  are  the  gentle- 
men who  at  the  first  alarm  of  violence  cry  to  the 
government  for  military  protection,  fill  the  town  on 
the  slightest  provocation  with  the  police,  and  who 
themselves  are   so    afraid  of    their  mortal    existence 


92  THE  REGULAR  QUARTERLY  DIVIDEND 

that  they  move  about  armed  to  the  teeth,  and  in 
quick  communication  with  the  militia.  0  tejnpora! 
O  mores! 

Let  the  reader  place  beside  this  sad  picture  ihat 
other  one  that  men  love  so  v^^ell  to  contemplate,  the 
Pullman  Palace  Car  Company,  $27,000,000  surplus. 
Capitalization  of  $30,000,000.  Two  per  cent  quar- 
terly dividend  of  $600,000  in  three  months! 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

RENTS,   WATER,  GAS,   ETC. 

When  Mr.  Pullman  said  that  he  had  "nothing  to 
arbitrate"  he  evidently  must  have  forgotten  for  the 
time  being  the  high  rents  and  exorbitant,  prices  de- 
manded for  water  and  gas  in  his  "model  town."  Mr. 
Pullman  in  his  final  statement  says: 

"A  few  words  are  pertinent  as  to  some  industri- 
ously spread  charges  against  the  Company,  One  of 
these  charges  is  that  rents  are  exorbitant,  and  it  is 
implied  that  the  Pullman  employees  have  no  choice 
but  to  submit.  The  answer  is  simple:  The  average 
rental  of  tenements  at  Pullman  is  at  the  rate  of 
$3  per  room  per  month,  and  the  renting  of  houses  at 
Pullman  has  no  relation  to  the  work  in  the  shops. 
Employees  may,  and  very  many  do,  own  or  rent 
their  houses  outside  of  the  town,  and  the  buildings 
and  business  places  in  the  town  are  rented  to  em- 
ployees or  to  others,  in  competition  with  the  neigh- 
boring properties.  In  short,  the  renting  business  of 
the  Pullman  Company  is  governed  by  the  same  con- 
ditions which  govern  any  other  large  owner  of  real 
estate,  except  that  the  company  itself  does  directly 
some  things  which  in  Chicago  are  assumed  by  the 
city.  If,  therefore,  it  is  not  admitted  that  the  lents 
of  any  landlord  are  to  be  fixed  by  arbitration  and 
that  those  of  the  adjoining  towns  of  Kensington  and 
Roseland  should  also  be  so  fixed,  it  can  hardly  be 
93 


94  AVERAGE  RENT  PER  ROOM 

asked  that  the  Pullman  Company  alone  should 
abandon  the  ordinary  rules  which  govern  persons  in 
that  relation." 

Let  us  examine  this  carefully.  He  says  that  $3.00 
per  room  is  the  average  rental.  According  to  page 
fifty-one  of  Mr.  Duane  Doty's  book  on  the  Town  of 
Pullman,  there  are  1,855  tenements  in  Pullman.  A 
few  have  been  added,  however,  since  the  publication 
of  Mr.  Doty  shook.  Averaging  five  rooms  to  a  house, 
that  would  make  it  $3.71  per  room.  But  it  must  be 
remembered  that  at  least  one-half  the  tenements  are 
now  empty,  and  about  one-third  of  them  have  always 
been  emipty.  Last  year,  on  account  of  the  World's 
Fair,  was  about  the  only  year  in  the  history  of  the 
town  when  the  houses  were  all  practically  occupied. 
If  we  should  base  an  average  on  the  actual  rents  paid 
and  the  actual  number  of  houses  occupied,  we  would 
find  a  much  higher  rental  than  $3  00  per  room.  But 
look  at  facts,  not  averages.  I  occupied  a  flat  of  four 
rooms  on  Watt  Ave.,  and  paid  $14,50  rent;  at  $3.00 
per  room,  I  lost  $2,50  per  month.  I  next  rented  a 
five  room  cottage  on  Morse  Ave., for  $17. 50;  at  $3.00 
per  room,  lost  $2.50  per  month.  I  am  now  renting 
a  five  room  cottage  on  same  street,  but  a  better  loca- 
tion, for  $18. 50;  at  $3.00  per  room,  I  am  losing  $3.  50 
per  month. 

In  Frank  Leslie's  Illustrated  Weekly,  published  in 
New  York,  July  26,  '94,  Mr.  John  T.  Bramhall  truth- 
fully says: 


RENT  OF  FLA  TS  A  ND  CO  TTAGES  95 

"I  had  read  that  the  rents  of  houses  here  range 
from  $5  to  $50  per  month,  the  average  being  $14; 
but  there  are  hundreds  of  tenements  ranging  from  $6 
to  $9  per  month.  These  rents  are  considerably  less 
than  for  similar  tenements  anywhere  else  in  Chicago. 

"The  above  was  written  several  years  ago,  when 
rents  were  higher  than  they  are  now.  Briefly  this 
is  what  I  found,  as  verified  by  the  rent  receipts,  the 
odd  cents  standing  for  the  water  rate:  Flat,  seven 
rooms  and  bath,  $28.96;  the  same  in  other  Chicago 
suburbs,  $18  to  $20.  Flat,  five  rooms,  $15.60;  flat, 
four  rooms,  $14.71;  apartments  in  "block,"  a  three 
story  tenement  building  in  the  middle  of  a  square, 
containing  from  seventeen  to  fifty-four  families — 
three  rooms,  $9.10;   two  rooms,  $7.60." 

I  quote  from  Mr.  Doty's  book,  written  in  the  in- 
terest of  the  company:  "Single  five  room  cottages 
rent  from  $16  to  $19  per  month,  while  single  houses 
of  from  six  to  nine  rooms  vary  from  $22  to  $10  per 
month."  While  these  are  cottages,  it  must  be  re- 
membered that  they  are  not  detached,  but  are  built 
side  by  side  with  other  brick  houses  in  rows.  I  pay 
$18.  50  for  a  five  room  cottage  and  seventy-one  cents 
for  water,  with  the  use  of  only  one  faucet,  and  no 
bath-room.  Four  and  five  room  apartments  in  two- 
story  flats  rent  from  $14  to  $15  per  month,  plus  the 
water  at  60  to  71  cents  per  month.  Four  room  apart- 
ments on  the  first,  second  and  third  floors  of  three- 
story  flats  rent  from  $1 1  to  $1 3.  50  per  month, plus  the 
water  at  sixty  cents  per  month. 

In  the  large  tenement  blocks,  where  from  300  to 
500  people  live  under  one  roof,  you  can  get  two  rooms 


96  "EVERYTHING  PAYS  RENT' 

on  third  floor  in  the  rear  for  $6.  50  plus  sixty  cents 
for  water,  or  four  rooms  for  $8.  50  plus  sixty  cents  for 
water.  On  the  second  floor  of  same  building  you  pay 
$8.50,  plus  sixty  cents,  for  three  rooms.  In  the  brick 
yards,  a  place  not  fit  for  any  decent  human  being  to 
live  in,  you  can  rent  a  three  room  cottage  for  $8.00. 
The  water  is  free;  one  outdoor  faucet  for  every 
four  houses.  There  are  some  very  high-priced  houses 
in  town.  Taking  all  cottages,  tenements  and  flats 
together,!  should  judge  that  the  average  rental  would 
be  more  likely  to  be  $18.00  than  $14.00, 

The  town  of  Pullman  is  estimated  to  be  worth 
$10,000,000.  Everything  pays  rent.  The  "Green- 
stone Church,"  as  I  have  already  intimated,  pays 
$1,200,  the  Methodist  Church,  in  the  Casino 
building,  pays  nearly  $500.  The  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
pays  $180  per  year.  The  1,800  dwellings  pay  $325,- 
000  or  more.  The  market,  the  arcade,  and  the  stores 
bring  in  a  good  rental  besides. 

Mr.  Pullman  further  says  that  "the  renting  of 
houses  in  Pullman  has  no  relation  to  the  work  in  the 
shops."  Now,  what  does  he  mean.?  Was  not  the  town 
built  principally  to  rent  to  the  employees  .!*  That  is 
the  very  theory  upon  which  it  is  established.  The  em- 
ployees are  positively  expected  to  live  in  Pullman. 
Last  winter,  when  work  was  slack,  the  shops  picked 
up,  and  the  men  were  re-employed.  The  orders  then 
were,  as  told  me  by  the  manager  himself,  first  to  take 
on  men  renting  in  Pullman,  second   those  who  own 


EMPLOYEES  EXPECTED  TO  RENT  97 

their  own  homes  in  adjoining  towns,  and  third  those 
who  do  not  rent  in  Pulhnan  or  own  homes  elsewhere. 
That  was  right.  The  renters  should  have  first  choice. 
When  the  shops  were  filled  up,  and  the  houses  well 
taken,  then  employees  could  be  free  to  live  elsewhere. 
Sometimes  there  are  certain  mechanics  whom  the 
Company  are  compelled  to  have;  they  can  live  where 
they  please.  If  necessary,  I  can  give  names  of  men 
who  have  told  me  that  they  were  urged  and  re-urged 
to  move  to  Pullman, or  be  "laid  off,"  The  employees, 
as  a  rule,  are  expected  to  rent  the  Company's  houses. 
There  are  many  exceptions,  it  is  true,  but  this  is  the 
unwritten  if  not  the  written  law  of  the  Company.  I 
know  many  men  who  would  prefer  not  to  live  here, 
but  are  practically  expected  to.  If  the  employees 
should  all  move  out  of  town  some  fine  morning  when 
work  is  in  full  blast,  the  Company  would  soon  tes- 
tify to  its  position  on  that  point. 

Mr.  Pullman  further  states  in  regard  to  rent  that 
he  charges  rents  in  Pullman  in  competition  with 
rents  in  adjoining  towns.  Here  is  a  letter  written 
by  a  Kensington  real  estate  dealer  to  the  Chicago 
Times  on  this  question.      I  quote: 

"Kensington,  111,,  July  17, — George  M.  Pullman, 
Esq.,  Long  Branch,  N,  J.— Sir:  In  the  publishment 
of  a  recent  interview  with  you  it  is  stated  that  your 
renting  department  charges  rents  in  Pullman  in  com- 
petition with  rents  in  the  adjoining  towns  of  Ken- 
sington, Roseland,  and  Gano.  If  you  sincerely 
believe  this  to  be  true,  it  would  be  well  for  you  to 
peirsonally  investigate,  as  with  my  six  years'  experi- 


98  RENTS  MORE  THAhl  IN  ADJOINING  TOIVNS 

ence  in  the  renting  business  in  the  said  towns  of  Ken- 
sington, Roseland,  and  Gano,  I  know  it  to  be  a 
positive  fact  that  flats  and  cottages  containing  parlor, 
dining-room,  two  bedrooms  and  kitchen,  with  use  of 
water  and  yard,  have  been  and  are  rented  for  $io 
and  $12,  for  which  similar  accommodations  you  charge 
$i6  and  $i8  at  least. 

"My  statement,  undoubtedly,  will  be  verified  at  any 
time  by  the   other    renting  agents    of    this    district. 

"Respectfully,  Cornelius  G.  Boon, 

Real  estate  and  renting  agent." 

There  is  no  question  whatever  but  that  better  flats 
and  cottages,  with  pretty  garden,  and  bath-rooms, 
can  be  hired  at  the  neighboring  towns  of  Roseland 
and  Kensington  at  fully  twenty  per  cent  less. 

The  water  tax  has  always  been  a  burden  upon  the 
people.  Bought  under  contract  for  four  cents  per 
i,ooo  gallons,  it  was  retailed  to  the  tenants  for  ten 
cents  per  i,ooo  gallons.  The  rates  to  the  tenants 
individually  are  given  above.  Since  Mayor  Hopkins 
took  office  the  price  to  the  town  of  Pullman  has  been 
increased,  and  now  this  company  is  said  to  be  mak- 
ing little  if  anything  on  the  water.  As  to  the  gas, 
it  is  a  well  known  fact  that  we  all  pay  $2.25  per 
thousand  feet,  while  in  Chicago  it  is  sold  for  $1.25 
and  $1.00. 

A  few  interesting  details  might  be  added  concern- 
ing the  town.  A  recent  table  of  the  nativity  of  the 
wage-earners  at  Pullman  shows  the  following: 


American i.,796 

Scandinavian 1,422 

German 824 

British  and  Canadian 796 


Dutch 753 

Irish 402 

Latin 170 

All  others 161 

6,324 


TAXES  ONE  MILL  ON  THE  DOLLAR  99 

The  town  controls  3,500  acres  of  land,  formerly 
swamp  land,  in  its  original  native  state  worth  prob- 
ably not  over  $15-00  per  acre.  About  one  hun- 
dred acres  is  covered  with  dwellings  and  other  build- 
ings, valued  at  about  $5,000,000,  and  two  hundred 
more  given  up  to  factories,  foundry,  shops,  steel 
mills,  etc.,  equaling  no  doubt  about $1 1,000,000,  all 
told.  It  is  a  fact  that  has  been  stated  repeatedly  with- 
out denial  that  this  vast  property  only  brings  into 
the  city  of  Chicago  a  pittance  of  $15,000.00  annually 
by  taxes,  less  than  one-tenth  of  one  per  cent  of  its 
estimated  value.  It  is  assessed  apparently  per  acre 
rather  than  by  lot.     What  is    the    matter  with    the 


assessor.-* 

Mr.  Pullman  objects  to  the  arbitration  of  his  rents 
and  compares  himself  and  company  to  the  ordinary 
real  estate  dealer.  This  is  not  a  fair  comparison. 
The  Pullman  Palace  Car  Company  is  so  established 
that  all  its  interests  are  clearly  related  one  to  an- 
other. The  town  of  Pullman  and  the  shops  are  in- 
separable. They  are  intimately  related  to  each  other. 
The  demand  of  the  men  for  reduction  of  rents  is 
reasonable  and  ought  to  be  heeded;  above  all,  when 
they  are  expected  to  live  in  his  houses,  he  should  be 
willing  while  cutting  their  income,  to  reduce  their 
expenses. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

SHOP    ABUSES. 

In  this  chapter  we  deal  with  one  of  the  vital  causes 
of  the  Pullman  Strike.  Shop  abuses  and  mismanage- 
ment have  had  no  little  to  do  with  the  present  con- 
dition of  affairs.  Mr.  Pullman  spent  much  money  in 
building  his  ideal  city,  but  laid  it  out  in  accordance 
with  the  feudal  system,  everything  belonging  to  the 
lord  of  the  manor.  It  was  an  experiment,  on  Amer- 
ican soil.  Mr.  Pullman  thought  he  would  make  a 
success  of  it.    But  it  has  practically  failed. 

He  got  the  best  class  of  workmen  to  be  found, 
and  paid  the  highest  wages.  They  earned  them,  for 
they  were  experts;  his  laboring  people,  owing  to  a 
surplus,  were  poorly  paid. 

Soon  the  cutting  of  wages  began,  and  American 
foremen  and  workmen  [,^radually  made  way  for  cheaper 
priced  men.  These  foremen,  to  curry  favor  with  the 
manager,  have  tried  every  means,  honest  or  dishonest, 
to  lessen  the  expenses  of  their  departments.  Among 
these  foremen  were  good,  bad,  and  indifferent  men. 
These  men  do  not  want  American  workmen.  One 
foreman  was  commonly  quoted  assaying,  "I  have  no 
100 


PRACTICES  OF  CER  TAIN  FOREMEN  1 01 

use  for  American  workmen;  they  are  too  d d  in- 
dependent." Complaints  of  ttie  brutality  of  these 
men  were  carried  to  the  central  office  without  any  re- 
dress whatever,  the  complainant  taking  the  chance 
of  discharge  for  so  doing. 

A  very  intelligent  communication,  evidently  writ- 
ten by  one  in  a  position  to  know,  appeared  in  the  litter 
Ocean  about  two  weeks  ago,  by  one  who  signed  him- 
self '*Fair  Play."  He  tells  the  truth  and  puts  it  very 
clearly.  He  takes  the  ground  that  the  principal 
cause  of  trouble  is  the  abuses  practiced  in  the  shops. 
He  says: 

"Here  are  some  facts  about  the  treatment  of  the 
men  that  can  be  easily  substantiated: 

"  I .  Certain  foremen  borrow  money  from  their  men, 
from  $5  to  $30,  and  when  men  complain,  discharge 
them  or  lay  them  off. 

"2.  One  foreman  near  foundry  induced  his  men  to 
buy  lots  near  Burnside.by  telling  them  the  owner  was 
a  friend  of  Pullman  and  would  see  they  were  kept  at 
work.  Said  foreman  received  commission  from  real 
estate  man. 

"3.  One  department  is  notorious  for  its  drinking  and 
profane  superintendent  and  corps  of  clerks.  It  is  a 
fact  that  they  are  all  sometimes  too  "tired"  to  do 
business  properly. 

"4.  Some  of  the  foremen  having  charge  of  the  for- 
eign laboring  classes  use  the  vilest  epithets  toward 
them,  and  even  attempt  to  kick  them. 

"5.  All  foremen  who  attempt  to  gain  the  good  will 
of  the  men  by  just  treatment  are  discharged  as  be- 
ing, in  the  words  of  the  manager,  'too  good  to  the 
men.'  " 


102  LETTER  FROM  A  CABINET-MAKER 

In  this  connection  I  will  give  here  a  letter  written 
to  me  by  an  employee  whose  name  I  withhold,  but 
can  produce  it  if  necessary.  He  states  the  case  clearly, 
and  is  evidently  an  intelligent   and  thoughtful  man: 

"Rev.  W.H.  Carwardine,  Dear  Sir: — In  the  cab- 
inet shop  (construction  department), where  all  except 
laborers  are  employed  on  piece-work,  the  principal 
trouble  is  the  reduction  of  prices  of  December  last 
averaging  thirty-three  and  a  third  per  cent.  Some 
articles  twere  reduced  as  much  as  fifty  per  cent  at 
that  time.  i.  Saloon  doors.  Lots  2040  and  2041. 
Previous  to  August  '93  prices  were  gradually  reduced 
as  often  as  a  man  made  over  the  limit,  which  at  that 
time  was  under  thirty  cents  per  hour.  Cabinet-makers, 
at  this  time,  were  rated  at  from  twenty  to  twenty-two 
cents  per  hour,  for  a  basis  to  pay  on  account  where 
jobs  were  partially  completed  at  close  of  the  half 
month.  At  time  of  resuming  work  in  December, 
cabinet-makers  were  rated  at  seventeen  to  nine- 
teen cents,  and  prices  for  piece  work  were  supposed 
to  be  made  to  enable  men  to  make  that  rate;  wherever 
a  man  made  over  one  or  two  cents  per  hour  above 
day  rate,  that  particular  job  was  again  pruned  in 
price.  2.  The  writer  on  seat  ends,  lot  2040, 
earned  twenty-two  cents  per  hour  (March  '94);  next 
lot,  2041,  were  cut  twelve  and  one  half  per  cent.  On 
the  other  hand,  where  prices  were  so  low  that  some 
men  occasionally  earned  less  than  one  dollar  per  day, 

prices    were  not    raised.      3.    Mr. on    doors 

earned  less  than  nine  cents  per  hour. 

'  'The  prices  paid  for  work  in  '93  were  lower  than  the 
year  previous, and  the  same  may  be  said  of  each  pre- 
ceding year,  so  long  as  the  writer  can  remember  the 
shop,  which  is  upwards  of  seven  years.  In  support 
of  this  may  be  mentioned  vestibule  doors,  the  prices 
of  which  have  been  revised   so  many  times,  each  in 


LIVELY  COMPETITION  .-IMONO  FG.iLi.icN  103 

the  same  direction,  that  they  have  ranged  from  $5  oo 
to  $2.40  per  pair. 

"It  should  be  noted  aoout  three  fourths  of  the  work 
done  since  last  fall  has  been  repair  work  on  Pull- 
man Co. 's  cars,  and  the  reduction  in  price  has  been 
as  great  on  that  as  on  contract  work. 

"Besides  the  reduction  in  prices,  the  mismanage- 
ment is  apparent  everywhere.  The  foreman  has  been 
known  to  set  a  price  on  a  piece  of  work  before  he 
knew  what  was  needed,  before  he  saw  the  drawing 
in  fact.  New  shelves  for  a  folding  table  (M.  O.  21,- 
176).  In  one  case  a  price  was  set  at  $3.00  each  for 
some  partitions;  after  completion  the  workman 
made  complaint  of  the  price,  which  was  raised  to  $5. 00, 
and  at  this  price  the  job  paid  under  twenty-four 
cents  per  hour.  This  price  was  May  '92.  Partition 
E.  lot  1 919,  Lately  the  foreman  informed  the  men 
he  no  longer  set  prices  for  new  work,  this  being  done 
in  the  manager's  office.  During  the  past  winter  the 
shop  has  depended  principally  on  repair  work,  and  on 
this  the  foreman's  assistants  have  been  entrusted  to 
fix  prices.  This  is  the  result:  one  man  gets  $2.00 
for  scraping  a  door,  another  man  receives  $1.75  for 
the  same  work,  and  the  assistant  foreman  paying  the 
highest  price  is  reprimanded,  after  which  he  endeav- 
ors to  meet  prices  of  the  other  petty  foreman,  and  it  is 
easy  to  see  who  feels  this  merry  war. 

"While  in  this  department,  during  the  past  year 
the  number  of  employees  have  been  reduced  about 
seventy  per  cent;  the  number  of  foremen  and  assist- 
ants remains  the  same.  According  to  figures  given  by 
Mr.  Wickes,  rather  more  than  one-third  of  the  men 
in  this  department  averaged  for  the  month  of  April, 
'94,  twenty  cents  per  hour  and  upwards;  in  this  one 
third  was  included  the  assistants  of  the  foreman  to  the 
number  of  about  seven.  This  shows  how  the  averages 
of  the  workmen  are  manufactured  by  the  Company. 


104  LETTER  FROM  A  CAR  BUILDER 

"During  slack  times  it  seems  an  injustice  some  men 
should  be  kept  continuously  at  work  while  others 
work  much  less  than  half  time.  Truly  some  are  bet- 
ter qualified  than  others,  and  probably  the  Company 
would  make  such  excuse;  but  these  men  who  work 
such  short  time  the  Company  think  sufficient  of  to 
keep  them  on  the  pay  rolls  for  the  sake  of  paying 
rent." 

Again,  I  will  insert  another  letter,  which  tells  its 
own  sad  story. 

"Pullman,  July  21,  '94. 
Rev.  W.  H.  Carwardine. 

Dear  Sir: — I  think  it  my  duty  to  explain  my  case. 
My  family  consists  of  myself,  wife  and  four  children. 
We  live  in  three  small  rooms  with  only  a  back  en- 
trance, for  which  I  pay  $9.00  per  month,  and  fifty 
cents  for  water.  I  am  considered  a  first-class  car 
builder,  and  am  a  sober  and  industrious  man  and 
have  always  reported  for  work,  whether  day  or  piece 
work.  I  was  worse  off  at  the  time  of  the  strike  by 
$250.00  than  when  I  came  to  Pullman.  In  regard 
to  wages  of  '93,  with  strict  economy  we  barely  eked 
out  an  existence,  but  the  first  part  of  '94  new  trouble 
began.  The  Company,  not  satisfied,  began  the  war 
by  reducing  our  wages  to  a  starvation  point.  At  the 
time  we  laid  down  our  tools,  we  were  building  a  car 
for  $19.50  that  we  should  have  got  $36  for.  After 
the  second  cut  in  our  wages  the  stores  refused  to 
give  us  credit,  as  they  knew  we  could  not  pay  in  full 
from  one  pay  day  to  another.  More  trouble  began. 
The  Company  would  not  give  us  our  checks  at  the 
shops  as  usual,  but  sent  us  to  the  Company's  bank, 
where  they  would  have  a  better  chance  to  squeeze  us 
for  the  rent  it  was  impossible  to  pay.  I  have  seen 
myself  and  fellow  workmen  pleading  with  the  rent 
agent  to  leave  us  enough  to  buy  some  member  of  the 


TOO  HUNGR  Y  TO  WALK  HOME  105 

family  a  pair  of  shoes  or  some  other  necessity.  Then 
when  our  last  cut  came,  that  was  the  straw  that 
broke  the  camel's  back;  we  could  not  stand  it  any 
longer;  I,  like  a  good  many  others,  had  to  stop  carry- 
ing my  dinner,  as  what  I  had  to  carry  would  have 
run  through  the  basket.  I  have  seen  one  of  my  com- 
panions on  the  next  car  to  mine,  so  weak  from  the 
lack  of  proper  food,  that  he  would  have  to  rest  on 
the  way  going  home. 

"We  could  see  plainly  it  was  either  work  and  starve, 
or  strike  and  depend  on  charity  until  we  could  win, 
which  we  are  bound  to  do.  The  good  Lord  is  always 
on  the  side  of  justice,  and  I  am  sure  he  will  see  jus- 
tice done  us.  Yours  Truly." 

Much  complaint  is  made  in  regard  to  the  placing  of 
incapable  men  in  positions  of  authority.  Men  are 
often  placed  in  these  positions  who  have  no  practical 
idea  of  the  nature  of  their  work.  They  may  be 
adepts  in  something  else,  but  not  in  the  duties  en- 
trusted to  them.  Prof.  Ely's  criticism  of  ten  years 
ago  on  nepotism  and  favoritism  throws  much  light 
on  these  abuses. 

One  of  the  most  abominable  abuses  practiced  in 
these  shops  is  that  known  as  "blacklisting."  To  my 
own  knowledge,!  have  seen  some  cruel  effects  of  this 
vile  practice. 

One  man,  whose  wife  was  an  esteemed  member  of 
my  church,  and  who  himself  was  highly  respected  by 
all  who  knew  him,  having  long  held  a  good  position 
in  the  service  of  the  Company,  was  discharged 
for  a  trivial  offense,  and  blacklisted.  I  am  acquainted 
with  all  the  details  of  the  case.    A  strong  temperance 


106  A  CRUEL  CASE  OF  BLACKLISTING 

man,  very  industrious,  and  yet  "blacklisted!"  It  was 
one  of  the  most  cruel  cases  of  the  kind  I  have  ever 
known. 

Fortunately  for  the  strikers,  they  have  a  piece  of 
splendid  evidence  against  the  Company,  to  prove  this 
charge.  About  December,  1893,  there  was  some 
trouble  among  the  steamfitters,  which  resulted  in 
the  blacklisting  of  the  following  forty  men.  I  will 
copy  here  the  order,  as  sent  out  by  the  local  manager. 

Pullman,  111.,  December  23,  1894. 
To  ALL  Foremen:  In  connection  with  the  recent 
trouble  we  have  had  with  steamfitters,  both  in  the 
construction  and  repair  departments,  I  give  below 
the  names  of  the  men  who  have  left  our  employ  and 
I  hereby  instruct  that  none  of  these  men  be  em- 
ployed in  these  works. 

CONSTRUCTION    DEPARTMENT. 

No.  1703  Joseph  Cohan. 

1705  Frank  McKevilt. 

1706  William  O'Meara. 

1707  James  H.    Matthews. 
171 1   Edward  Sweeney. 
1715  John  Guthardt. 

1721  Martin   Tracey. 
1720  Tice  Mastenbrook. 

1722  Charles  G.  Duffy. 
1740  Frank  Vincent. 
1743  Michael  McNuIty. 
1753  William  H.  Danaher. 
1764  Edward  M.  Barrett. 
4500  Jacob  Stockman. 
4516  Robert  Goebbels. 

4563  James  A.   Brown. 

4564  Louis  Moss. 

4565  Thomas  Hamilton. 


A  SPECIMEN  BLACK  LIST 


107 


Daniel  J.  McCarthy. 
John  A.  Smith. 
Frank  Pohl. 
Ambrose  J.  Hough. 
George  Elwell. 


"]  These  men  were  hired, 

but  would  not  go  to 

V  work       when      they 

found      the       other 

J  men  had  quit. 

REPAIR   DEPARTMENT 

No.  6976  Frank  Engle,  Steam  fitter. 

6977  B.  Jones,  " 

78  Thomas  Johnston,       •' 

80  Wm.  J.  Connell, 

83  Chas.  R.  McGinnis,    " 

85  C.   Patton, 
6985   P.   McCai^fery, 
6988  Martin    Craig, 

go    J.  C.Warburton,  <' 

95  B.  O.   Gara, 
7002  Josh  Jones,  Helper. 

7  William  Mack,  " 

15  Mike  Carroll,  " 

16  Frank  Oberreich,  " 
35  Dave  Burrows,     /               " 

24  M.  Cunningham,  " 

25  James  Payne,  «« 
82  August  Berghofer,  " 

H.  MiDDLETON,  Manager. 

Another  case.  A  blacksmith,  said  to  be  one  of  the 
very  best  ever  employed  by  the  Company,  left  his 
vi^ork  one  afternoon  for  some  good  reason.  An  in- 
cipient strike  took  place  in  his  absence.  After  the 
strike  was  over,  applying  for  work,  he  found  his  name 
among  the  "blacklisted."  Went  to  headquarters,  mana- 
ger was  sorry,  but  could  not  reinstate  him.  Later  was 
ordered  out  of  his  house.  Still  on  the  blacklist.  I 
have  inquired  carefully  into  the  case,  and  from  the 
best  authority  believe  it  to  be  a  case  of  injustice.  I 
have  his  name. 


108  COhlTRACTS  FOR  ROLLING  MILL  REFUSED 

This  whole  matter  of  blacklisting  is  worthy  of  Si- 
beria. It  is  a  disgrace  to  American  labor.  It  is  a 
boycott  on  labor.  Capital  complains  of  strikes  and 
boycotts.  I  deprecate  strikes,,  and  I  believe  a  boy- 
cott to  be  wrong,  and  a  poor  way  to  win  good  re- 
sults for  labor,  but  capital  boycotts  a  man  when  she 
"blacklists"  him.  The  "blacklisted"  man  can  not  only 
not  get  employment  in  all  of  the  Pullman  shops,  and 
Pullman  interests;  but  cannot  even  get  a  recommen- 
dation of  good  character  to  another  employer. 

A  complaint  of  another  nature  comes  from  the  Roll- 
ing Mill  operatives.  Why  does  Mr.  Pullman  continue 
the  policy  of  refusing  profitable  contracts  for  his 
rolling  mill — contracts  for  work  outside  of  that  done 
for  the  car  system — and  thereby  keep  in  idleness  for 
weeks  at  a  time,  to  the  detriment  of  their  families, 
the  best  class  of  skilled  rolling  mill  operatives  to 
be  found  in  the  country?  These  men  are  mostly  En- 
glishmen, and  all  are  splendid  workmen,  who  make 
good  wages  while  there  is  employment,  but  are  idle 
half  the  time  because  of  this  peculiar  policy  of  the 
Company. 

It  has  been  denied  that  there  is  political  intimi- 
dation. 

We  all  know  how  futile  is  that  denial.  Since  the 
Australian  ballot  system  came  into  vogue,  the  em- 
ployees have  voted  about  as  they  please, but  previous 
to  that,  and  at  present  in  local  elections,  foremen  talk 
very  positively  to   their  men   about   voting,  and  give 


THE  COMPANY  IN  LOCAL  POLITICS  109 

them  to  understand  what  the  consequences  will  be. 
I  had  an  experience  in  this  direction  myself,  in  the 
late  aldermanic  election,  when  a  certain  official  of 
the  Company  went  to  a  foreman  and  gave  him  to  un- 
derstand that  he  was  to  withdraw  his  name  as  a  can- 
didate for  a  certain  office,  and  "would  in  all  proba- 
bility be  expected  to  settle  it  within  that  day."  This 
roused  the  independence  of  the  man,  he  resisted  the 
threat  and  continued  running  for  the  nomination;  he 
lost  the  nomination,  but  defeated  the  chances  of  the 
Company's  candidate.  The  candidate  opposed  by 
the  Company  was  elected.  In  a  few  weeks,  the  in- 
dependent foreman  was  asked  to  resign.  He  had 
been  years  in  the  employ  of  the  Company,  and  was 
one  of  its  most  efficient  men.  Two  other  employees 
interested  in  his  candidacy  were  also  asked  to  resign. 
Theoretically  the  Pullman  Company  never  interferes 
with  the  politics  of  its  employees,  but  practically 
there  have  been  strong  evidences  the  other  way. 

There  is  absolutely  no  recognition  of  merit  in  the 
policy  of  the  Company.  Changes  are  constant,  A 
peculiarity  of  the  town  of  Pullman  is  the  evanescent 
character  of  its  life.  It  seems  to  be  inherent  in  the 
system.  Many  men  remain  in  the  employ  of  the 
company  for  years;  but  no  one  is  safe.  There  is  a 
constant  feeling  of  insecurity.  Men  have  put  in  years 
of  hard,  laborious  work,  only  to  be  dismissed  with- 
out a  moment's  warning,  and  then  scarcely  to  receive 
a  word  of  thanks.     This  is  the  strangest  thing  to  me 


110  INVENTORS  DEPRIVED  OF  RECOGNITION 

in  the  whole  system.  I  have  been  surprised  to  see 
how  quick,  and  on  what  slight  ground  faithful  men 
are  discharged. 

In  such  a  vast  system,  perfection  is  impossible, 
and  injustice  may  be  occasionally  done  without  in- 
tent. But  there  is  no  reason  why  true  merit  should 
not  be  appreciated  and  encouraged.  Such  a  Com- 
pany as  this  can  afford  to  be  generous  and  sincere 
in  its  treatment  of  its  men.  Promotion  and  recogni- 
tion is  reciprocal  in  its  effect.  Nothing  is  lost  there- 
by. And  in  this  connection  we  might  add  that  the 
pensioning  of  its  old  and  tried  employees  is  an  un- 
known factor  in  the  daily  life  of  this  Company. 

Again,  the  Company  is  greatly  enriched  by  inven- 
tions of  its  employees, for  which  they  give  the  employee 
neither  money  nor  credit.  Many  ingenious  inventions 
and  devices  are  scattered  throughout  the  shops  that 
bring  in  good  returns,  but  not  to  their  inventors,  Mr. 
Pullman,  said  to  be  one  of  the  greatest  inventors  of 
the  age,  instead  of  encouraging  a  spirit  of  invention 
among  his  employees,  and  giving  them  the  credit 
thereof,  on  the  contrary,  enforces  the  law  upon  them, 
by  which,  if  they  do  invent  anything  in  his  shops, 
they  shall  relinquish  all  title  to  the  same. 

A  grievous  charge  made  by  the  employees  against 
those  in  authority  in  the  shops  is  that  of  personal 
abuse.  Foul  and  abusive  language  on  the  part  of  a 
foreman  or  the  head  of  a  department,  or  even  by  an 
official,  should  not  be  tolerated  for  a   moment.    I  do 


WORKING  UNDER  A  BRUTAL  FOREMAN  111 

not  wonder  that  men  whose  wages  have  been  re- 
duced to  such  a  low  ebb,  should  retaliate  when  in- 
sult and  abuse  is  added  to  low  wages,  I  well  remem- 
ber, when  an  orphan  boy  in  the  city  of  New  York, 
having  to  work  for  six  years  under  an  abusive  fore- 
man in  the  composing  room  of  the  Nezu  York 
Evening  Post.  Of  all  the  men  I  have  ever  met,  he 
was  the  embodiment  of  tyranny.  A  man  of  consid- 
erable ability,  but  foul  in  language  and  despotic  in 
authority,  the  daily  terror  of  all  who  were  under  his 
influence.  He  treated  men  like  dogs,  swore  at  them 
and  abused  them  without  stint.  In  those  days  there 
was  engendered  in  my  soul  a  hatred  against  tyran- 
nical foremen  and  abusive  treatment  of  men  which 
has  never  left  me,  and  which  daring  the  past  months 
of  our  long  and  sad  winter,  made  my  very  blood  boil 
with  indignation  at  what  I  have  seen  and  heard. 
Then  it  was  that  I  declared  if  ever  the  opportunity 
presented  itself  to  defend  the  true  rights  of  laboring 
men,  and  smite  those  who  unmercifully  oppressed 
them,  I  would  lift  up  my  voice  and  cry  aloud,  in  the 
name  of  the  God  of  Israel. 

One  other  charge  of  selfish  evasion  of  duty  I  would 
prefer  against  this  great  Pullman  Palace  Car  Com- 
pany is  that  it  does  not  give  damages  unless  abso- 
lutely compelled  to,  to  those  who  are  injured  or  die 
in  its  service. 

There  are  numerous  cases  in  the  town  of  Pullman 
illustrative  of  this.     A  lady  whose  husband  had  long 


112  EVASION  OF  JUST  CLAIMS 

been  in  the  employ  of  the  Company,  is  now  a  widow. 
Her  husband  died  from  the  effects  of  the  breakage  of 
the  machine  on  which  he  was  working,  the  name  of 
which  I  will  not  mention  for  fear  of  injuring  her 
case.  She  has  been  making  every  effort  to  get  a 
settlement  from  the  Company  for  many  months.  But 
procrastination  and  evasions  have  met  her  at  every 
turn,  until  now  she  is  heartily  discouraged. 

The  public  will  doubtless  remember  the  case  of 
the  colored  porter  who  had  been  seriously  injured 
in  the  service  of  the  Company,  and  applied  repeatedly 
for  satisfaction.  At  last  when  McPherson,  the  Com- 
pany's lawyer,  secured  a  strap  from  him  in  the  Com- 
pany's city  offices,  the  best  evidence  he  had,  in  sheer 
desperation  he  turned  and  fired  three  shots  from  a 
revolver,  neither  of  them  producing  any  serious 
damage. 

Many  cases  might  be  enumerated  showing  how  a 
great  and  wealthy  corporation  resorts  to  every  pos- 
sible method  to  avoid  settling  claims  of  those  who 
have  a  right  to  receive  help  from  them. 

Pitiful  are  the  stories  told  of  the  sick  and  injured 
who  receive  little  or  no  compensation  for  injuries 
done.  There  is  an  ofBcial  Doctor  and  Surgeon,  who 
gives  a  certain  amount  of  medical  service  to  the 
injured.  It  used  to  be  that  a  sick  man  was  allowed 
for  a  certain  time  $2.00  a  day;  then  gradually  it  was 
reduced  to  $1.00  a  day,  and  that  only  paid  when  he 
could  report  for  work  and  pick  up  screws  from  a  heap 


STATEMENT  OF  MRS.  IVOOD  113 

of  different  sized  screws  on  the  floor. 

I  will  conclude  this  point  with  the  quotation  of  a 
letter  giving  a  statement  of  the  treatment  by  the 
Company  of  a  certain  Mrs.  Wood,  a  member  of  my 
church,  whose  husband  died  as  the  result  of  wounds 
inflicted  while  in  the  performance  of  duty  as  a  watch- 
man. She  is  responsible  for  her  own  statement. 
The  case  is  a  well  known  one  in  Pullman  and  cre- 
ated g;reat  interest  at  the  time.      The  writer  says: 

"Buckley  \A'ood,of  312  Stephenson  Street,  watch- 
man at  the  Fulton  Street  gate,  was  assaulted  July  15, 
1886,  by  a  man  named  Pearson,  who  tried  to  take  a 
box  of  tools  through  the  outer  gate  without  a  pass, 
which  was  required  by  the  rules  of  the  Company, 
and  which  Mr  Wood  asked  for,  when  Pearson  struck 
him  in  the  face  with  a  hatchet,  knocking  out  two  of 
his  teeth  and  knocking  him  down  so  that  he  fell  strik- 
ing the  back  of  his  head  on  a  stone.  He  was  unable 
to  give  an  account  of  the  assault   for  over  a  week. 

"Pearson  was  arrested  by  a  policeman  named  Thos. 
Kane  and  was  locked  up  in  the  Kensington  Station 
until  transferred  to  Hyde  Park.  When  the  case  was 
called,  Mr.  Wood  was  not  able  to  appear,  and  police- 
man Kane  prevailed  upon  Mrs.  Wood  not  to  leave 
her  husband  to  attend  the  trial,  as  the  police  would 
see  to  it  that  justice  was  done,  which  they  did  by 
letting  the  defense  choose  the  jury,  which  brought  in 
a  verdict  of  'not  guilty.'  They  held  that  Mr.  Wood 
had  no  right  to  stop  Pearson  from  taking  his  own 
tools  from  the  shops.  In  which  case  I  think  the  Pull- 
man Company  should  have  been  responsible,  inas- 
much as  they  gave  him  strict  orders  not  to  allow  any 
one  to  take  anything  from  the  shops  without  a  pass 
from  their  foreman.   Police  Captain  Hunt  went  with 


114  KILLED  IN  THE  COMPANY'S  SERVICE 

Mrs.  Wood  and  witnesses  to  the  city  to  get  an  indict- 
ment for  the  man,  but  when  they  arrived  the  grand 
jury  had  adjourned  for  six  weeks,  and  when  they  re- 
turned, Pearson,  having  been  notified  of  their  inten- 
tions through  some  source,  had  decamped  for  parts 
unknown,  until  it  was  learned  he  was  arrested  and 
convicted,  and  sent  to  state  prison  for  two  years  in 
the  state  of  Ohio  for  assaulting  an  old  man  about  a 
year  afterward. 

"Mr.  Wood  was  employed  afterward  in  the  Paint 
department,  not  through  kindness  of  the  Pullman 
Company,  but  rather  that  of  Mr,  Thomas  Kennedy, 
who  was  then  superintendent  of  the  paint  depart- 
ment, and  knew  that  Mr.  Wood  was  not  really  able 
to  do  any  work.  He  let  him  put  in  his  time  doing 
any  little  odd  jobs  he  could  do;  as  the  Pullman  Com- 
pany did  not  consider  him  as  being  in  good  enough 
health  to  resume  his  position  as  watchm.an,  and  the 
books  of  the  Pullman  Company  will  show  how  many, 
many  days  he  was  not  even  able  to  walk  to  the  shop, 
as  through  the  kindness  of  Mr.  Kennedy,  if  he  once 
got  to  the  shop,  he  was  not  compelled  to  do  any  work 
as  long  as  the  higher  ofBcials  did  not  see  him  doing 
nothing.  In  that  way  he  lived  until  the  30th  of 
May  following,  when  he  died  as  surely  from  the  effect 
of  his  injuries  of  the  previous  July  as  if  he  had  died 
the  same  day. 

"Mrs.  Wood,  thinking  it  altogether  useless  for  a 
poor  widow  to  try  and  fight  a  corporation  like  the 
Pullman  Company,  did  not  act  on  advice  she  re- 
ceived from  many  friends  to  bring  suit  against  them, 
but  tried  to  make  some  arrangement  with  Mr.  Sessions, 
then  manager  of  the  works  in  Pullman,  whereby  she 
could  have  the  use  of  the  house  in  which  she  lived, 
but  he  said  he  had  no  authority  to  let  her  have  the 
house  without  paying  rent  for  it.  She  wrote  several 
times,  once  through  her   minister,  pastor  of  the  first 


SIX  WEEK'S'  RENT  FOR  A   LIFE  115 

M.  E.  church,  who  registered  a  letter  to  Mr.  Pull- 
man,but  did  not  receive  an  answer.  She  decided  to 
pay  the  rent  and  did  so,  with  the  exception  of  six 
weeks'  rent($26.  56)at  the  time  of  her  husband's  death, 
which  they  gave  her  as  a  free  gift  in  recompense  for 
the  life  of  her  husband.  At  three  different  times  since, 
when  she  has  been  unable  to  m.eet  the  rent  bills 
promptly,  she  has  had  notice  of  eviction,  and  been 
compelled  to  borrow  enough  money  to  pay  the  rent  to 
keep  from  having  her  goods  put  out  into  the  street, 
once  in  December,  1893,  when  she  had  got  behind 
in  the  rent,  but  made  arrangements  with  the  town 
agent  to  pay  the  old  rent  as  she  could,  and  let  her 
daughter  take  the  responsibility  of  the  house  from 
January  i,  1894.  She  did,  and  paid  a  rental  of  $17.- 
71  per  month  from  a  salary  of  $r.oo  (one  dollar)  per 
day,  having  the  remainder  to  support  herself  and 
mother.  The  January  rent  she  paid  cash  and  for 
February,  March  and  April  she  paid  it  from  her  pay 
checks,  paying  for  the  four  months  rent  $70.84 
and  receiving  in  payment  not  over  $25.00  above  rent 
for  the  same  four  months.  On  the  third  of  May  it 
seems  that  after  Miss  Wood  had  been  out  of  work 
over  a  week  they  made  the  startling  discovery  that 
they  had  credited  $12,71  (which  she  had  paid  in 
January)to  the  account  of  the  old  bill  (with  which  she 
had  no  connection,  as  she  paid  her  board  until  Jan- 
uary i),  but  instead  of  correcting  their  mistake,  gave 
her  notice  to  vacate  the  house  on  the  3rd  of  May, for 
a  bill  of  $12.71  due  on  January  rent,  while  she  held 
receipts  for  February,  March  and  April,  and  when 
she  remonstrated  in  the  Pullman  bank  the  clerk  said 
he  had  credited  it  as  he  saw  fit  and  would  not  change 
it,  and  she  would  be  compelled  to  pay  it  over  or 
leave  the  house. 

"Mrs.  Wood  told  the  agent  she  would  go  to  head- 
quarters, when  he  flew  into  a  passion,  and  told  her  if 


116  NOT  ALL  SUNSHINE  IN  PULLMAN 

she  dared  go  to  Mr.  Wickes  she  would  be  made  to 
suffer  for  it.  She  did  go  to  see  Mr.  Wickes,  who  told 
her  that  something  should  have  been  done  for  her  be- 
fore if  he  had  known  of  her  case,  of  which  he  claimed 
he  knew  nothing.  He  told  her  she  should  go  home 
and  rest  contented,  that  she  would  not  be  troubled. 
Mr.  Middleton,  the  present  manager  of  the  works,  told 
her  that  her  daughter  would  not  be  troubled  for  the 
rent,  that  she  should  draw  what  money  was  coming 
to  her;  after  which,  on  May  21st,  ten  days  after  the 
strike,  when  she  went  to  draw  the  money  due  her, 
$3.53,  she  was  asked  to  sign  it  over  for  rent,  which 
she  refused  to  do  and  does  not  know  whether  or  not 
she  will  be  compelled  to  move  for  non-payment  of 
rent  when  the  strike  is  over." 

Now,  in  view  of  these  facts,  the  great  true-hearted 
public,  believers  in  fair  play,  will  see  that  it  is  not  all 
sunshine  in  Pullman.  This  great  undercurrent  of 
dissatisfaction, culminating  in  the  strike  of  May  nth, 
had  some  underlying  causes  back  of  it.  Some  of  the 
things  I  have  mentioned  may  seem  trivial,  but  like 
the  lesser  streams  emptying  into  the  greater,  and 
swelHng  the  impetus  thereof,  so  these  countless 
lesser  abuses  and  tyrannies  have  wrought  out  their 
awful  and  disastrous  results.  How  long  will  great 
corporations  continue  to  deal  thus  inhumanly  with 
employees? 

I  do  not  and  never  have  hesitated  to  place  the  re- 
sponsibility of  the  strike  upon  the  Company.  The 
public  must  bear  in  mind  that  while  the  action  of  the 
employees  seemed  hasty,  still  they  had  great  cause  for 
action.     To  say  that  it  was  produced  entirely  by  the 


THE  STRIKE  NOT  IDIOTIC  117 

"labor  agitator"  is  to  insult  the  intelligence  of  the 
finest  body  of  mechanics  gathered  together  in  any 
one  place  in  the  United  States.  I  contend  that  when 
a  body  of  men  such  as  we  have  here,  lay  down  their 
tools  and  leave  the  work  bench,  as  did  these  men, 
that  they  are  actuated  by  some  great  underlying  mo- 
tive, and  that  it  will  not  do  to  call  them  idiots  and 
fools. 

These  employees  were  in  a  very  sensitive  and  sus- 
picious state  of  mind.  A  long  winter,  with  its  count- 
less causes  for  grievance  and  dissatisfaction,  was  just 
behind  them.  They  had  been  so  ground  between 
the  upper  mill  stone  of  "low  wages"  and  the  nether 
mill  stone  of  "high  rents,"  the  continued  oppression 
of  the  "straw  bosses,"  the  smothered  but  still  unsup- 
pressed  dislike  of  the  general  and  local  management, 
which  has  added  to  rather  than  sought  to  alleviate 
their  troubles,  and  a  system  of  surveillance  that  seems 
to  be  indigenous  to  the  very  atmosphere  of  the  place, 
that  they  were  in  no  condition  to  be  trifled  with  by 
the  Company. 


CHAPTER  X. 

PERSONAL — LESSONS — REMEDY. 

Suffer  a  few  words  of  personal  allusion.  When  I 
delivered  my  sermon  on  "The  Pullman  Strike,"  ten 
days  after  its  employees  walked  out  of  the  shops,  I 
had  no  idea  that  it  would  have  created  the  interest 
that  it  has. 

It  was  rather  an  audacious  act  to  perform,  because, 
owing  to  the  peculiarity  of  the  paternalistic  govern- 
ment of  Pullman,  no  one  feels  like  openly  criticising 
the  Company.  The  time  having  arrived,  I  spoke  out, 
what  were  my  honest,  candid  convictions,  without 
thought  of  fear  or  favor.  My  position  was  peculiar. 
I  did  not  endorse  the  strike,  and  never  have.  I  did 
not  endorse  the  boycott.  Repeatedly  have  I  said  this. 
But  I  stood  for  justice.  If  the  workingmen  believe 
in  strikes  and  boycotts,  all  right.  They  have  found 
that  strikes  may  do,  but  boycotts  will  not  do.  But 
these  working  men  use  the  weapons  seemingly  most 
useful,  as  they  think,  for  their  purpose.  But  I  look 
back  of  all  this,  and  say, "Let  us  unearth  the  cause!" 
Strike  at  the  root.  Don't  revile  and  curse  these  em- 
ployees !  Vituperation  of  strikers  will  do  no  good.  Study 
the  situation,  and  give  them  in  their  demand  for  jus- 
tice your  sympathy  and  moral  support.  Stir  up  one 
118 


PUBLIC  SYMPATHY  AND  PREJUDICE  119 

half  of  society  to  behold  the  wrongs  of  the  other  half. 
If  you  have  a  theory  that  will  solve  their  problem, 
bring  it  forth,  and  let  them  see  it — don't  cry  anarchy 
and  run  away  from  them,  or  leave  them  to  the  tender 
mercies  of  the  militia  and  the  police. 

Quell  the  mobs — shoot  all  law-breakers  in  time  of 
awful  peril.   But  do  not  call  all  "strikers"  anarchists. 

Holding  this  position,  I  was  surprised  to  find  how 
the  fear  of  anarchy  and  mob  rule  blinded  the  eyes  of 
true  men  and  women  to  the  injustice  that  had  wrought 
all  these  things.  We  had  better  look  at  the  evil 
calmly,  and  remedy  it;  or  the  evil  in  the  future  will 
break  forth  again  in  awful  fury,  with  far  more  disas- 
trous results.  I  have  found  my  position  has  not  been 
altogether  a  pleasant  one.  While  I  am  commended 
on  all  sides  by  the  better  classes,  who  daily  deluge 
ms  with  letters,  interviews,  questions,  etc.,  and 
while  I  am  regarded  with  infinite  kindness  by  the 
striking  employees,  still  I  find  plenty  who  are  ready 
to  chide  me. 

I  must  not  forget  here  to  acknowledge  with  great- 
ful  appreciation  the  sympathy  and  co-operation  of 
my  beloved  friend  and  brother  pastor,  the  Rev.  Wil- 
bur F.  Atchison,  pastor  of  the  Hyde  Park  M,  E. 
Church,  and  his  talented  wife,  Mrs,  Rena-Michaels 
Atchison,  formerly  Dean  of  the  Women's  College  at 
Evanston,  and  now  Secretary  of  the  State  Woman's 
Suffrage  Society  of  Illinois.  In  them  I  have  found 
true  sympathy  for  the  cause  of  the  laborer. 

We  have  fallen  on  serious  times. 


120  THE  COLLAR  OF  SERVITUDE 

The  inequalities  of  life  as  indicated  in  the  social 
fabric  of  modern  society  are  simply  fearful.  In  many 
respects  we  are  living  in  the  grandest  age  this  old 
world  has  ever  seen.  And  yet, with  our  boasted  prog- 
ress and  advancement,  I  realize  that  something  is 
radically  wrong  in  a  condition  of  society  that  permits 
some  to  be  so  poor  and  others  to  be  so  rich.  It 
certainly  looks  as  though  the  poor  were  growing 
poorer  and  the  rich  becoming  richer. 

No  person  who  has  ever  read  Sir  Walter  Scott's 
wonderful  story  of "  Ivanhoe"  can  forget  the  picture  of 
Gurth,  the  Swineherd.  Describing  him,  Scott  says: 
"One  part  of  his  dress  only  remains,  but  it  is  too  re- 
markable to  be  suppressed.  It  was  a  brass  ring,  re- 
sembling a  dog's  collar,  but  without  any  opening, 
and  soldered  fast  round  his  neck,  so  loose  as  to  form 
no  impediment  to  his  breathing,  yet  so  tight  as  to 
be  incapable  of  being  removed  excepting  by  the  use 
of  the  file.  On  this  singular  gorget  was  engraven  in 
Saxon  characters  an  inscription  of  the  following  pur- 
port: 'Gurth,  the  son  of  Beowulph,  is  the  born 
thrall  of  Cedric  of  Rotherwood.'  " 

What  a  picture! 

What  a  change  to-day! 

And  yet,  while  we  have  moved  some  little  distance 
from  the  day  that  lives  again  in  the  glowing  pages  of 
Sir  Walter, nevertheless  Gurth, the  son  of  Beowulph, 
is  with  us  yet. 

While  he  wears  not  the  collar  of  Cedric  of  Rother- 


THE  GROli/TH  OF  CLASSES  121 

wood,  yet  he  is  to  all  intents  and  purposes  the  chattel 
or  "White  Slave,"  of  the  "corporation,"  "trust"  or 
"millionaire  lords,"  many  of  whom  it  may  be  said 
are  in  these  days  of  growing  social  inequality,  the 
Cedrics  of  Rotherwoodof  modern  society. 

We  as  a  nation  are  dividing  ourselves,  like  ancient 
Rome,  into  two  classes,  the  rich  and  the  poor,  the 
oppressor  and  the  oppressed.  And  on  the  side  of 
the  oppressor  there  is  power  and  protection,  class 
legislation  and  military  support.  Should  this  policy 
continue  for  a  generation  or  two,  there  can  be  no 
doubt  at  all  that  working  men  who  in  times  of  war 
and  invasion  are  the  protectors  of  our  liberties  and 
homes,  would  refuse  to  take  up  arms  in  their  de- 
fense. We  are  following  in  the  tracks  of  ancient  Rome, 
instead  of  learning  useful  lessons  from  her  failures 
and  defeats.  No  country  can  prosper,  no  govern- 
ment long  perpetuate  itself  and  its  institutions,  which 
does  not  administer  judgment  and  justice  alike  to  all 
of  its  people.  Napoleon  said  God  w^as  always  on 
ihe  side  of  the  heaviest  battalions,  but  God  Himself 
has  said  that  He  is  on  the  side  of  righteousness  and 
justice  for  the  poor  and  needy,  and  that  He  will  avenge 
their  cause  against  the  oppressor. 

The  oppressed  of  to-day  are  white  laborers  and 
mechanics  who,  evidently,  though  without  a  Su- 
preme Court  decision,  have  no  rights  which  million- 
aires and  moneyed  corporations  are  bound  to  respect. 
And  with  the  oppressor    there  is  power.      But  as  is 


133  DEEP  UNREST  IN  SOCIETY 

invariably  the  case,  proven  by  ancient  and  modern 
history,  the  oppressor  is  the  heaviest  loser.  Men 
and  nations  sometimes  oppress  to  their  own  hurt. 
An  estimate  of  the  money  losses  in  the  present  strike 
up  to  July  9,  '94,  puts  them  at  $6,560,500,  of  which 
the  laborers  have  lost  in  wages  $1,500,000.  And 
this  does  not  include  the  loss  to  the  business  and 
commerce  of  the  country, nor  the  cost  to  the  federal 
and  state  governments  of  the  military  occupation. 
And  all  this  grows  out  of  the  oppression  of  one  man 
who  was  once  a  poor  mechanic.  He  has  gained  wealth, 
and  risen  into  power  on  it  so  that  he  can  now  take  ad- 
vantage of  the  necessities  and  poverty  of  his  fellow- 
men  to  crush  and  oppress  them. 

Whatever  the  fathers  who  organized  this  govern- 
ment intended  it  to  be,  we,  their  successors,  have 
evidently  drifted  very  far  away  from  the  original  in- 
tention of  the  founders.  It  is  no  longer  a  govern- 
ment of  equal  rights  for  all.  The  present  strike  may 
be  overcome  by  federal  bayonets  and  bullets,  but 
the  trouble  will  not  end  here.  There  is  deep  unrest 
in  the  lowest  strata  of  society,  the  real  burden-bearers 
of  our  country,  which  augurs  ill  for  capitahstic  op- 
pression in  the  future.  The  United  States  is  to  be  the 
theater  for  the  presentation  of  the  best  possible  re- 
sults oi  human  government.  We  are  giving  an  object 
lesson  in  government  to  the  world.  And  these  results 
are  to  be  developed  within  a  very  few  years,  too.  I 
therefore  deprecate, though  necessary,  the  use  of  fed- 


COURTS  OF  /IRBITRATION  SUGGESTED  123 

eral  troops  in  this  strike  as  a  precedent,  pregnant  with 
evil  in  years  to  come.  Capital  seems  to  be  organ- 
ized to  destroy  the  independence  of  labor  and  defeat 
its  efforts  at  elevation;  and  labor  is  organized  not 
only  to  protect  itself,  but  to  retaliate  on  capital. 
These  conditions  can  not  be  perpetuated.  One  force 
or  other  must  yield  or  be  destroyed,  or  a  common 
ground  of  reconciliation  must  be  found  for  both. 

Can  there  not  be  found  a  common  ground  of  agree- 
ment between  capital  and  labor.^  If  they  are  to  ex- 
ist at  all,  they  must  live  as  husband  and  wife,  each 
the  counterpart  of  the  other,  each  for  the  other's 
interests  and  welfare.  My  suggestion  is  that  there 
should  be  National  and  State  Courts  of  Arbitration; 
the  former  in  cases  of  appeal,  receiving  the  decisions 
of  the  latter,  and  having  final  jurisdiction  in  all  cases 
whether  of  review  or  original.  I  say  courts,  not  com- 
mittees of  inquiry.  If  international  disputes  can  be 
thus  settled,  why  should  not  national  or  local  be? 
The  strong  arm  of  the  law  should  compel  the  auto- 
cratic millionaire  as  well  as  the  dependent  mechanic 
to  submit  his  case  and  abide  by  the  decision.  And 
where,  as  in  this  strike,  there  is  an  obstinate  refusal 
to  arbitrate,  then  the  federal  or  state  governments 
should  take  possession  of  the  railroads,  the  telegraph, 
the  coal  mines,  or  the  manufacturing  plants,  and  run 
them  in  the  interest  of  the  whole  people,  and  not  in 
the  interest  of  obstinate  corporations.  The  public 
good  and  the  peace  of  the  country  demand  this. 


124  USE  YOUR  BALLOT  ARIGHT 

The  man  or  body  of  men,  corporation  or  labor 
union  which  refuses  to  arbitrate  their  differences  are 
traitors  to  their  country's  best  interests,  violators  of 
her  laws,  instigators  to  riot,  and  enemies  of  every 
principle  that  is  good  and  pure  and  holy  and  peace- 
able. They  should  be  dealt  with  to  the  utmost  extent 
and   with  utmost  rigor  of  the  law. 

Among  other  lessons  impressed  upon  the  mind  of 
the  American  people  by  the  great  crisis  through  which 
we  have  narrowly  passed,  is  that  of  the  power  and 
dangers  of  combined  labor,  the  inhumanity  of  corpora- 
tions, the  unrest  of  society,  the  necessity  of  some 
new  legislation,  and  the  expediency  of  independent 
political  action. 

I  appeal  to  the  great  body  of  the  laboring  classes, 
in  view  of  the  developments  of  the  past  few  weeks, 
hereafter  and  forever  to  use  your  ballot  aright.  It 
is  the  God-given  privilege  of  every  American  citizen, 
purchased  at  the  sacrifice  of  blood,  tears  and  prop- 
erty, and  which  is  the  birthright  of  4,000  years  of 
slow  and  painful  evolution  from  degradation,  slavery 
and  tyranny  to  the  liberty  of  this  latter  nineteenth 
century.  A  ballot  unknown  in  ancient  days,  in  the 
Mosaic  economy,  and  Roman  history;  a  ballot  that 
first  began  to  make  its  appearance  when  the  Barons 
at  Runnymede  demanded  the  rights  of  Magjia  Charta 
from  King  John  of  England,  when  Oliver  Cromwell 
rose  against  the  despotism  of  Charles  L,  with  his 
Star  Chamber,  and  when  Martin  Luther  blew  a  blast 


RESTORE  A  FREE  GOVERNMENT  125 

that  awoke  all  Europe  to  the  dawn  of  the  Reforma- 
tion; a  ballot  that  was  not  born  until  the  urgent  de- 
mands of  a  home  government  once  more  created  a 
rebellion,  and  the  American  Colonies  were  estabhshed, 
and  that  m.asterpiece  of  human  composition,  the  Dec- 
laration of  Independence, given  to  the  world;  a  ballot, 
forsooth,  that  did  not  reach  its  majority  until  Abra- 
ham Lincoln  broke  the  manacles  that  enslaved  3,000,- 
000  black  men,  and  signed  that  Magna  Charta  of 
human  liberty,  the  Act  of  Emancipation;  a  ballot  that 
represents  a  government  of  the  people,  by  the  people, 
and  for  the  people,  free  homes,  free  schools,  free 
press,  a  united  people,  the  right  of  every  man  un- 
molested to  worship  God  according  to  the  dictates 
of  his  own  conscience;  the  greatest  gift  given  by  God 
to  man  outside  of  his  blessed  Son,  our  Lord  and 
Savior  Jesus  Christ,  and  one  that  can  give  us,  if  we 
use  it  right,  the  grandest  type  of  government  under 
the  sun! 

O,  workmen  of  America,  use  this  gift  aright,  for 
principle,  not  party,  for  men  who  are  patriots  and 
who  are  able  to  represent  your  best  interest!  Love 
your  country.  There  is  no  better  in  this  world. 
Love  and  uphold  our  constitution,  and  ever  protect 
the  flag  for  which  our  fathers,  my  father,  died. 

Go  forth,  little  book,  like  a  piece  of  driftwood 
tossed  out  on  the  watery  main  of  life,  and  may  God's 
blessing  go  with  you.  You  have  been  written  in  the 
true  spirit  of  my  blessed  Master,  who  scourged  when 


120  MISSION  OF  THIS  BOOK 

it  was  necessary,  whose  soul  burned  with  heated 
indignation  against  the  oppressors  of  the  poor,  who 
compared  false  prophets  to  whited  sepulchers,  and 
yet  who  spoke  words  of  loving  kindness  to  the  down- 
trodden, and  helped  to  smooth  the  weary  way  of  life  to 
burdened  souls.  Yours  has  been  a  labor  of  love. 
May  you  reach  the  homes  of  wealth,  and  awaken 
them  to  their  duty,  may  you  fire  the  hearts  of  reform- 
ers to  greater  deeds,  may  you  stir  the  minds  of  legis- 
lators to  the  need  of  better  laws,  and  may  you,  above 
all,  help  to  bring  the  great  mass  of  the  laboring  mil- 
lions to  realize  that  the  secret  of  their  greatest  hap- 
piness and  the  settlement  of  all  our  industrial  troubles 
lies  in  the  upholding  of  the  true  principles  of  that 
Christianity,  irrespective  of  creed,  which  was  given 
to  the  world  by  Him  who  not  only  said,  "Do  unto 
others  as  ye  would  that  they  should  do  unto  you," 
but  also  that 

^\xt  gab0Xiix  i0  ^0vUxti^  iff  gi^  ^ive, 

THE    END. 


APPENDIX. 

By  permission  of  Mr.  Carwardine,  the  publishers 
here  append  extracts  from  a  few  letters  selected  from 
a  great  number  addressed  to  him  by  thinking  men  all 
over  the  country,  whose  attention  has  been  attracted 
by  published  reports  of  his  sermon  on  the  Pullman 
strike.  The  letters  are  interesting,  not  only  for  the 
clear  thinking  and  forcible  expression  contained,  but 
also  for  the  indication  which  they  afford  of  the 
powerful  trend  of  popular  sympathy  with  the  Pullman 
strikers,  not  only  among  workingmen  so-called,  but 
among  independent  and  intelligent  citizens  every- 
where. 
From  D.   T.  Averill,    Madison,    Wis. 

I  write  to  you  to  thank  you  for  the  stand  you  have 
taken,  because  it  is  right.  I  wish  there  were  more 
ministers  of  the  gospel  that  would  stand  for  God  and 
the  right  and  the  common  people  who  heard  our 
Saviour  gladly. 

From  Charles    H.  Barrows,  Attorney  and    Counselor  at  Law, 
Springfield,  Mass. 

I  wish  I  knew  the  facts  from  the  employees'  point 
of  view,  and  if  there  is  any  statement  or  point,  would 
be  greatly  obliged  if  you  could  send  it  to  me.  Mr. 
Debs  said,  "The  men  might  as  well  starve  idle  as  at 
work."  We  at  the  east  have  no  means  of  knowing 
what  this  means.  The  public  would  welcome  a  can- 
did investigation. 

127 


128  STRIKES  ARE  MEREL  Y  A  S  YMP TOM 

From    John  Black,  8i,  92nd    Street,    Chicago,  111. 

I  read  your  sermon  of  last  Sunday  evening,  to-day 
for  the  first  time.  Tears  of  delight  burst  from  my 
eyes  on  its  perusal.  If  I  had  been  there  I  would  have 
extended  to  you  the  right  hand  of  fellowship,  but  as 
it  is  I  ask  you  to  accept  of  my  sincere  thanks  for  your 
brave  and  manly  utterance  and  withal  so  timely. 
Such  a  discourse  as  you  delivered  last  Sunday  even- 
ing is  unique  in  its  rarity  from  such  a  source.  It 
should  not  be  so.  This  particular  rebuke  emanated 
from  the  proper  source.  Would  to  God  they  came 
more  often.  Why  should  crime  in  high  places  go 
unrebuked  by  the  church, and  the  most  contemptible 
of  all  crime  at  that,  robbery  of  the  poor.?  But  it  is 
so  common  and  frequent  that  we  all  expect  it  and 
cease  to  wonder.  Our  so  called  civilization  is  a 
march  to  a  precipice.  If  something  is  not  done  soon 
to  inaugurate  a  reign  of  justice,  the  end  will  be 
dreadfuL 
From  F.  D.    Butler,  Chicago,  111. 

I  commend  you  most  heartily  for  your  fearlessness 
in  your  recent  utterances  from  your  pulpit.  I  am 
in  hearty  sympathy  with  the  laboring  people,  of 
whom  I  am  one  (as  are  you),  though  not  in  the  com- 
mon sense  of  the  word.  I3ut,  I  look  upon  strikes 
merely  as  a  symptom  (together  with  the  Coxey  move- 
ment, the  vast,  wide-spread  destitution  afflicting  the 
masses  contrasted  with  the  luxurious,  unearned  idle- 
ness of  the  few)  of  the  great  evil  in  our  social  system, 
landlordism. 
From  M.   E.  Conger,     Manager    "The   Educator"    Pub.     Co., 

Chicago,   111. 

Your  position  as  teacher  and  preacher  in  the  pres- 
ent Pullman  Strike,  is  noticeable  and  commendable. 
It  is  no  more  than  we  have  a  right  to  expect  of  every 
professional  man  or  woman,    but    it  is  quite  the  op- 


GLAD  SOME  CLERGYMEN  DARE  SPEAK  129 

posite  of  the  realities  which  we  are  compelled  to  ac- 
cept year  in  and  year  out,  from  the  great  majority  of 
our  leaders.  As  we  read  and  understand  you  from 
newspaper  reports,  you  have  said  and  done  no  more 
than  your  duty,  no  more  than  common  manly  justice, 
and  are  we  not  all  bound  to  be  just?  Think  of  the 
mighty  change  that  would  take  place  in  this  great 
city  of  Chicago  if  every  clergyman  would  see  his  duty, 
privilege,  and  act  upon  it  as  you  have.  One  hun- 
dred and  fifty  thousand  workers  in  this  city  respond 
to  your  noble  position  and  thank  you  with  prayers 
and  blessings  that  are  free  from  hypocrisy.  They  are 
real  and  genuine  prayers. 
From  Rev.  J.  D.   Coverston,    Bremen,  Ind, 

I  notice  in  the  Chicago  Daily  Tribune  of  the 
2 1st  inst.,  your  Sunday  evening  sermon  on  the  Pull- 
man Strike.  You  come  out  in  plain  terms  against 
the  millionaire,  Mr.  Pullman,  I  am  glad  that  some 
clergymen  have  the  courage  to  speak  out  in  no  un- 
certain sound  for  the  rights  of  labor.  If  more  would 
do  as  you  have  done,  some  of  the  conditions  in  this 
country  would  change.  I  most  heartily  commend 
your  heroic  utterance  about  Mr,  Pullman,  not  that  I 
want  a  rich  man  abused,  because  he  is  rich,  but  be- 
lieving you  knew  the  truth  and  spoke  it.  Let  the 
truth  be  told  all  round.  The  truth  is  reformation. 
The  labor  movement  ought  to  ask  for  equal  power 
in  the  law  making  body  of  America.  It  is  not  right 
that  money  sharks  make  all  the  laws  to  govern  labor. 
We  ought  to  have  the  "Referendum"  in  this  country, 
both  in  church  and  state. 
From   James    Dangerfield,     Elgin,   III. 

It  was  the  report  of  your  fearless  sermon  a  few 
weeks  ago  that  attracted  us  to  you.  We  are  with 
you  in  your  efforts  to  show  up  iniquity,  and  trust  and 
believe  you  are  with  us  in  our  efforts  to  obtain  jus- 


130  THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  POOR 

tice,  not  for  the  poor,  but  for  all.  The  Creator  has 
provided  abundance  for  all,  yet  from  apathy  and  ig- 
norance of  economic  truths,  there  are  right  here  in 
Elgin,  hundreds  in  want  of  the  necessities  of  decent 
existence  Why  must  we  pinch  and  starve  while 
Nature  is  so  lavish?  Rev.  Mr.  Fawcett,  a  grand 
young  broad  gauge  Methodist  Minister,  addressed  our 
club  last  night  on  "Should  Economics  be  spoken  of  in 
the  Pulpit.^"  It  would  please  and  encourage  our  club 
if  I  could  read  them,  some  time  at  your  convenience, 
a  few  words  from  you  on  this  great  fundamental  ques- 
tion: The  right  of  every  human  being  to  the  use  of  the 
earth. 

From   Eugene  V.    Debs,  President  American    Railway  Union. 

It  does  me  good  to  receive  your  encouragement, 
and  I  thank  you  for  it..  You  know  that  I  feel  that 
the  poor  and  labor  have  been  neglected  by  the 
churches,  and  this  is  the  reason  for  my  keen  appreci- 
ation of  your  friendship,  for  you  have  suffered  perse- 
cution and  realize  with  what  the  poor  have  to  contend. 
Not  until  the  powers  which  at  present  control  our 
legislation,  national  and  state,  are  eradicated,  how- 
ever, will  such  as  you  and  I  be  allowed  to  rest. 

From    Rev.     John     Merritte    Driver,     Pastor    First     M.     E. 
Church,  Marion,    Ind, 

I  want  to  thank  you  for  your  very  great  kindness  in  re- 
plying so  fully  and  intelligently  to  my  letter  of  inquiry. 
You  have  acted  heroically,  and  if  I  am  not  entirely 
mistaken  you  have  exalted  Christ's  spirit  and  the 
heroism  and  humanity  of  Methodism  as  very  few  of 
us,  if  any,  have  ever  done.  I  believe  our  beloved 
church  and  our  beloved  religion  will  forge  forward  in 
Pullman  now,  through  your  instrumentality,  as  they 
have  never  done  before. 


WHAT  A   PHYSICIylN  HADSEEN  131 

From  John  W.  Howe  Ssc'y,  Union  No.  164,  A.  R.  U., 
Dubuque,  Iowa. 
At  a  meeting  held  in  Dubuque  of  the  Ameri- 
can Railway  Union,  your  sermon  was  read  on 
the  subject  "The  laborer  is  worthy  of  his  hire, " 
as  reported  in  the  Chicago  Herald  of  the  2ist 
inst.,  and  immediately  afterward  a  motion  was  offered 
that  a  vote  of  thanks  be  tendered  you  for  the  very 
able  and  fearless  way  in  which  you  referred  to  the 
abuses  existing  at  Pdllman,  the  petty  tyrannies  that 
are  imposed  on  the  employees,  and  the  many  injus- 
tices that  you  so  ably  presented  and  criticised  and 
condemned.  It  was  ver}^  refreshing  and  pleasant  to 
us  as  laboring  men  to  know  that  we  have  such  warm 
and  able  advocates  as  you  proved  to  be  in  this  case, 
and  we  sincerely  pray  that  you  will  always  be  able 
to  maintain  the  position  you  now  occupy  on  this 
matter.  We,  the  members  of  the  Local  Union,  164 
of  the  A.  R.  U.,  heartily  thank  you  and  wish  you 
God-speed. 

From  A.  L.   Hunt,  M.  D.,  Kansas  City,  Mo. 

I  have  read  with  great  satisfaction  an  extract  from 
a  sermon  you  delivered  at  Pullman  recently.  Allow 
me  to  congratulate  you  upon  your  courage  and  stand, 
taken  under  the  existing  circumstances.  If  more  men 
would  take  the  same  stand  and  come  out  in  the  in- 
terest of  Justice  and  Truth,  we  would  soon  get  on  to 
the  right  track.  I  have  been  led  to  my  convictions 
through  my  professional  duties  as  a  physician;  many 
times  every  week  visiting  families  who  need  food 
rather  than  medicine.  Often  I  have  brought  infants 
into  the  world  where  their  parents  were  unable  to 
provide  clothes  to  dress  them.  We  need  more  men 
to  proclaim  the  same  Truth,  and  need  them  badly. 
From   Charles    K.    Ladd,   Kewanee,    III. 

I  have  read  with  much  interest  notes  of  your  ser- 
mon in  to-day's  Chicago  Herald.   I  would  like  to  get 


134  GREETINGS  FROM  EAST  AND  IVEST 

small  practical  contribution  to  the  relief  fund  for  the 
suffering  unemployed  at  Pullman. 
From  Charles   H.    Keeler,   Jr.,    Reading,    Pa. 

I  but  voice  the  sentiments  of  many  people  in  this 
city  when  I  say  that  we  view  your  standing  in  the 
matter  of  the  wage  earners  of  Pullman  as  highly  com- 
plimentary to  yourself  as  a  man,  and  also  doing  a 
noble  duty  in  pointing  out  the  errors  of  this  man,  Pull- 
man, that  others,  following  in  his  footsteps, may  rec- 
tify their  error  ere  it  is  too  late. 
From  B.    R.    Phelps,    East  Orange,    N.   J. 

I  have  read  with  interest  your  indictment  of  G.  M. 
Pullman,  and  am  glad  you  have  had  the  courage  to 
speak  out  on  the  subject,  for  I  should  think  it  would 
require  that  quality  to  express  oneself  so  unfavorably 
to  a  powerful  person,  when  in  his  vicinity  and  some- 
what in  his  power.  Of  course  a  person  at  a  distance 
cannot  form  so  intelligent  an  opinion  of  the  contro- 
versy. I  write  to  ask  if  you  will  kindly  give  me  some 
information  about  the  place,  if  I  am  not  troubling  you 
too  much. 
From  Ii.   R.   Sidwell,  Chicago,  111 

Allow  me  to  congratulate  you  on  the  manly  course 
you  took  in  your  sermon  yesterday,  I  have  just  read 
the  purport  of  your  sermon  in  the  morning  Herald. 
I  would  to  God  we  had  more  public  men  that  would 
stand  for  justice  at  all  times.  Go  on,  Brother,  in  your 
good  work,  I  am  not  a  day  laborer  at  present  Jus- 
tice is  what  I  want  to  see.  The  old  flag  we  fought 
for  and  under,  floats  proudly  in  the  breeze,  denoting 
liberty  and  freedom. 
From  J.    A.    Stocking,   274  Lincoln  Ave.,  Chicago,    111, 

Having  read  a  few  extracts  from  your  sermon  of 
last  Sunday,  as  reported  in  the  Herald  of  Monday,  I 
desire  to  thank  you  for  your  manly  words,  and  con- 
gratulate you  for  your  bravery  in  taking  the  part  of 
the  "under  dog  in  the  fight."  Would  that  there  were 


THE  BR O  THERHOOD  OF  MAN  135 

more  men  like  you  in  our  pulpits.  You  and  I  would 
not  agree  on  religious  matters,  for  of  far  more  im- 
portance than  the  Fatherhood  of  God  is,  in  my  esti- 
mation, the  Brotherhood  of  Man.  My  ideal  Christ 
would  have  taken  the  same  stand  as  you  have.  Again, 
I  thank  you. 

From   Noah   Shupert,  Pres.   St.   Joseph   County  Sunday   School 
Union,    S^uth  iie.nd,   Ind. 

I  wish  to  give  you  my  highest  compliments  as  a 
member  of  the  church  and  a  laboring  man  of  modest 
means  for  your  excellent  sermon  to  your  congregation 
last  Sunday  evening,  as  reported  in  Chicago  Herald. 
Would  be  glad  to  have  it  in  full. 
From    A.    Sterling,    Plainfield,     N.  J. 

In  the  Journal  of  the  "Knights  of  Labor, "June  28, 
1894,  there  is  a  quotation  from  a  sermon  of  yours. 
Your  words  give  me  hope  that  you  have  taken  up  the 
cry  of  the  people.  My  heart  has  long  been  heavy 
with  their  cry  in  my  ears.  But  I  have  a  reasonable 
hope  of  better  things.  The  working  people,  always 
the  poor  people, bear  the  burden  of  taxation  now;  by 
putting  the  whole  burden  upon  the  value  of  land, 
each  would  bear  his  just  share.  I  am  in  the  order 
of  the  Knights  of  Labor.      Why  do  you  not  join  us.^* 

From    Joseph   W.    Tantum,     Second      National   Bank,    Brook- 
lyn,   N.    Y. 

If  you  are    correctly    reported,    you  have    startled 
Pullman  with  the  sight  of  a  man. 
From    Frank    Voight,    Labor   Exchange,    Atlanta,   Ga. 

Your  sermons  preached  in  defense  of  the  poor  have 
been  read  in  Atlanta,  God  bless  you  for  your  stand 
by  the  poor.  I  read  in  yesterday's  paper  that  the 
strike  is  over.  If  so,  it  will  only  show  that  the  ques- 
tion between  capital  and  Pabor  has  not  been  solved 
by  this  fearful  loss  of  life  and  property,  and  we  may 
look  for  more  such  calamity,  if  a  plan  be  not  formed 
to  give  men  bread. 


Asleep   and   Awake, 

A  Realistic  Story  of  Chicago. 


Raymond  Russell  is  the  name  on  the  title  page.  Ray- 
mond Russell  is  the  hero  of  the  story,  or  rather  the  lover 
of  the  heroine.  The  real  author  is  a  Chicago  writer  who 
has  published  other  well  known  books,  but  whose  iden- 
tity the  publishers  are  not  yet  at  liberty  to  disclose, 

Leonore,  the  heroine,  is  a  girl  living  in  a  country  town, 
whose  intellectual  nature  is  awakened  by  a  chance  meet- 
ing with  Raymond  Russell.  She  comes  to  Chicago 
without  his  knowledge,  and  having  a  remarkable  voice, 
aims  at  a  musical  career.  But  she  finds  every  door 
closed  to  her.  Her  money  is  gone,  and  after  a  vain 
wandering  in  search  of  work,  she  faints  on  the  crowded 
street.  The  one  person  who  takes  pity  on  her  is  Adel, 
a  "fallen"  woman  of  Custom  House  Place.  Here  the 
scene  of  the  remainder  of  the  book  is  laid,  and  the  read- 
er follows  the  story  with  breathless  interest  up  to  the 
tragic  climax. 

The  author  comments  unsparingly  on  the  double 
standard  of  morals  applied  to  the  male  and  the  female 
frequenters  of  the  scenes  described,  yet  refutes  the  indis- 
criminate charges  of  Count  Tolstoi  against  men. 

Every  one  who  read  the  Kreutzer  Sonata  should  read 
"Asleep  and  Awake,"  where  after  the  worst  has  been 
said,  new  ground  is  given  for  faith  in  a  pure  love,  not  in 
woman  alone  but  in  man. 

i2mo,  handsome  clotli  blading,  one  dollar  postpaid. 

CHARLES  H.  KERR  &  COMPANY,  Publishers, 
175  Monroe  Street,  Chicago, 


S'i^ 


Do' YOU  KNOW  that  hard  times  come  from  scarcity  of  money  and 
that  this  scarcity  is  the  result  of  hundreds  of  mi'ilions  of  dollars 
being  all  the  time  hidden  in  safes,,  pockets,  safety  depositories, 
and  the  people's  stockings? 

Yes,  true,  but  why  is  money  so  universally  hidden? 

Because  people,  through  the  enormous  number  of  bank  failures, 
have  lost' confidence  in  banks — as  was  the  case  in  the  early  part  of 
1893,  when  714  banks  failed.  No  wonder  that  the  people  were  panic 
stricken  and  drew  out  of  the  banks  in  June  and  July  of  that  year  over 
400  millions  of  dollars. 

Mark  the  result.  At  that  time  over  800  manufacturing  institutions 
shut  down  and  turew  out  of  employment  over  467,000  workmen. 
That  number  has  increased  to  millions  of  enforced  idlers  and  here  we 
are.  Idleness,  destitution,  crime;  and  the  rich  buying  up  the,  peo- 
ple's little  properties  at  their  own  price,  while  the  poor  become 
poorer,  and  the  rich,  taking  advantage  of  the  disturbed  conditions, 
rapidly  becom'e  millionaires. 

Do-yau  want  to  know  how  to  stop  bank  failures,  financial  panics, 
shuttingdbwn  of  business  and  the  throwing  of  millions  of  people  out 
of  work?'  Then  read 

I  I 


by  the  Hon.  Thos.  E  Hill,  author  of  Hill's  Manual,  who  clearly 
shows. how  the  government  may  own  and  safely  operate  the  banks  to 
the  advantage  of  all  the  people  instead  of  their  few  wealthy  stock- 
holders. 

Added  to  the  book  is  a  glossary  of  financial  terms  and  explanations 
relating  to  monetary  affairs  which  makes  the  work,  in  reality,  a  dic- 
tionary of  finance. 

This  glossary  comprises  many  statistical  tables,  and  readily  answers 
hundreds  of  perplexing  financial  questions  never  before  explained  in 
any  book,  relating  to  alloys  in  coins,  banks,  how  organized,  difference 
between  state  and  national  banks,  bimetallism,  bills  of  exchange, 
bullion,  checks,  clearing  house  certificates,  coins  and  coining,  coins 
of  all  nations  and  their  values,  currency,  currency  certificates,  deben- 
ture bonds,  demonetization,  drafts,  fiat,  financial  history  of  the 
country,  free  coinage,  funding,  gold,  where  obtained,  amounts  in  ex- 
istence, where  it  is,  government  bonds,  interest  in  different  stales, 
legal  tender,  letters  of  credit,  money  and  dmount  for  each  person  on 
earth,  monometallism,  National  bank  failures,  public  debt,  seignior- 
age, silver,  where  obtained  and  in  what  amounts,  stocks,"  subsidiary  sil- 
ver coins,  treasury  notes.  United  States  notes,  etc.,  etc. 

Price:  paper,  25  cents;  cloth,  75  cents;  leather,  $1.00.  Sent  post- 
paid on  receipt  of  price. 


Charles  H.  Kerr  &  Company,  Publishers,  175  Monroe  Street,  Chicago. 


